On the iterative regularization of inverse heat conduction problems by conjugate gradient method

The convergence and regularization properties of the conjugate gradient algorithm applied to the inverse heat conduction problem are considered for a time-dependent boundary heat flux. An analysis based on both numerical and analytical results clearly shows that the convergence process of the algorithm is strongly frequency-dependent and provides in this way a very efficient regularization mechanism against the destabilizing effect of random errors in the input data.     

Component analysis of a steady inverse convection problem solution in a porous medium

A steady-state inverse free convection problem is solved by conjugate gradient and adjoint equations in a porous medium confined within a square enclosure subjected to an unknown heat flux on one side, and to isothermal and adiabatic conditions on the other sides. Numerical solutions for sinusoidal flux profiles are examined on the basis of a Fourier decomposition for Rayleigh numbers ranging from 0 to 10⁴. Analytical perturbation results for the first iteration are provided, showing the initial effects of convection on the inverse solution. It is found that the problem involves scales of different magnitudes, slowing down convergence, mainly through the step size, as convection develops.     

An inverse problem in estimating the base heat flux of an annular fin based on the hyperbolic model of heat conduction

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to solve the inverse hyperbolic heat conduction problem in estimating the unknown time-dependent base heat flux of an annular fin from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the fin. The inverse solutions will be justified based on the numerical experiments in which two specific cases to determine the unknown base heat flux are examined. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements. The influence of measurement errors upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent base heat flux can be obtained for the test cases considered in this study.     

Control of the boundary heat flux during the heating process of a solid material

In this paper we apply the conjugate gradient method to solve the inverse problem of determining a time-dependent boundary heat flux in order to achieve a given temperature distribution at the final time. The derivation of sensitivity and adjoint equations in conjunction with the conjugate gradient algorithm are given in detail. The zeroth-order Tikhonov regularization is introduced to stabilize the inverse solution. Solutions by finite differences are obtained for various heat flux profiles. It is found that the time-dependent heat flux may be predicted only for a non-dimensional time of the order of 0.1 while the control problem can be satisfactorily solved for an arbitrary period of time.     

A SERIAL SOLUTION FOR THE 2-D INVERSE HEAT CONDUCTION PROBLEM FOR ESTIMATING MULTIPLE HEAT FLUX COMPONENTS

A serial algorithm for the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) has been developed to estimate the individual flux components, one by one, at the unknown boundary, based on the function specification method. The sensitivity coefficient defined in this algorithm brings out the influence of the heat flux components independent of each other. The objective function minimizes the difference in the measured temperature and the contribution of the individual flux component to the thermal field at the sensor location. The serial algorithm developed here could be used with data from both overspecified and underspecified sensors with respect to the number of flux components. The method was tested for delineating independent heat fluxes at the boundary of a two-dimensional solid for both space- and time-varying heat fluxes. Simulated thermal histories obtained from direct solution were used as inputs for the inverse problem for characterizing the new algorithm.

Three types of analyses were done on the results of the IHCP, focused on (1) the convergence of error in estimated temperatures at the different sensor locations, (2) overall error in estimated temperatures for the whole domain, and (3) the total heat energy transferred across the boundary. It is shown that the optimum configuration of independent unknown fluxes is given by the one with minimum energy estimates across the boundary, for both cases.     

Application of Wavelet in Highly Ill-Posed Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

In this work, the prefiltering of the sensor data is taken into consideration when solving an inverse heat conduction problem. The temperature data obtained from each sensor is considered as a discrete signal, and discrete wavelet transform in a multi-resolution filter bank structure is utilized for the signal analysis, after which wavelet denoising algorithm is applied to remove noise from data signal. Subsequently, noisy and denoised temperatures are separately used as input data to an inverse heat conduction problem for comparison. The inverse heat conduction problem considered in this article is an inverse volumetric heat source problem, and it is solved using the conjugate gradient method along with the associated adjoint problem used to obtain the gradient of the objective function. Three sets of results in two case studies are compared (i.e., the result obtained from non-noisy data, noisy data, and denoised data). In the case of noisy data, iterative regularization is used to regularize the solution. The root mean square error of the estimated heat source from denoised data is reduced approximately by a factor of seven to nine as compared to those obtained from noisy data.     

Direct and inverse mixed convections in an enclosure with ventilation ports

The numerical study presented in this work describes the direct and inverse mixed convection problems in a slot-ventilated enclosure subjected to an unknown heat flux on one side. Particularly, the interaction of internal natural convection with the cold ventilated flow leads to various flow fields depending on the Richardson number, Reynolds number, and the functional form of the imposed boundary heat flux. Fluid and heat transport structures across the enclosure are visualized by the streamlines and heatlines, respectively. Subsequently, an iterative conjugate gradient method is applied such that the gradient of the cost function is introduced when the appropriate sensitivity and adjoint problems are defined for a domain of arbitrary geometries. In this approach, no a priori information is needed about the unknown boundary heat fluxes to be determined. The accuracy of the heat flux profile solutions is shown to depend strongly on the values of Reynolds number and flux functional forms. Effects of measurement errors on the accuracy of estimation are also investigated. The present work is significant for the flow control simultaneously involving the natural convection and forced convection.     

Estimation of boundary conditions in the presence of unknown moving boundary caused by ablation

Ablative materials can sustain very high temperatures in which surface thermochemical processes are significant enough to cause surface recession. Existence of moving boundary over a wide range of temperatures, temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of ablators, and no prior knowledge about the location of the moving surface augment the difficulty for predicting the exposed heat flux at the receding surface of ablators. In this paper, the conjugate gradient method is proposed to estimate the unknown surface recession and time-varying net surface heat flux for these kinds of problems. The first order Tikhonov regularization is employed to stabilize the inverse solution. Considering the complicated phenomena that are taking place, it is shown via simulated experiment that unknown quantities can be obtained with reasonable accuracy using this method despite existing noises in the measurement data.     

Inverse estimation of spatially and temporally varying heating boundary conditions of a two-dimensional object

In many dynamic heat transfer situations, the temperature at the heated boundary is not directly measurable and can be obtained by solving an inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) based on measured temperature or/and heat flux at the accessible boundary. In this study, IHCP in a two-dimensional rectangular object is solved by using the conjugate gradient method (CGM) with temperature and heat flux measured at the boundary opposite to the heated boundary. The inverse problem is formulated in such a way that the heat flux at heated boundary is chosen as the unknown function to be recovered, and the temperature at the heated boundary is computed as a byproduct of the IHCP solution. The measurement data, i.e., the temperature and heat flux at the opposite boundary, are obtained by numerically solving a direct problem where the heated boundary of the object is subjected to spatially and temporally varying heat flux. The robustness of the formulated IHCP algorithm is tested for different profiles of heat fluxes along with different random errors of the measured heat flux at the opposite boundary. The effects of the uncertainties of the thermophysical properties and back-surface temperature measurement on inverse solutions are also examined.     

Solution of the inverse steady state convection problem in a porous medium by adjoint equations

The inverse free convection problem in a porous medium is solved by adjoint equaitons and conjugate gradient. A derivation of the set of adjoint equations in the steady case is provided. Numerical solutions are obtained for the case of a rectangular enclosure subjected to an unknown heat flux on one side, and to known conditions on the remaining sides. Results are presented for different flux profiles with a Rayleigh number ranging from 0 to 10⁴ and the effect of noise in the input data is also examined.     

Inverse problem of estimating the heat flux at the roller/workpiece interface during a rolling process

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown space-dependent heat flux at the roller/workpiece interface during rolling process from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the roller. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements, and the effect of the errors in these measurements upon the precision of the estimated results is also considered. The results show that an excellent estimation on the space-dependent heat flux can be obtained for the test cases considered in this study.     

Estimation of heat flux and temperature distributions in a composite strip and homogeneous foundation

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent heat flux and temperature distributions for the system composed of a multi-layer composite strip and semi-infinite foundation, from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the strip. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent heat flux can be obtained for the test case considered in this study.     

Estimation of heat flux on the surface of an initially hot cylinder cooled by a laminar confined impinging jet

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown space-and time-dependent heat flux at the surface of an initially hot cylinder cooled by a laminar confined slot impinging jet from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken on the cylinder’s surface. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements, and the effect of the errors in these measurements upon the precision of the estimated results is also considered. The results show that an excellent estimation on the space-and time-dependent heat flux can be obtained even the distributions of thermal properties inside the cylinder is unknown.     

Determining boundary heat flux profiles in an enclosure containing solid conducting block

A numerical implementation of estimating boundary heat fluxes in enclosures is proposed in the present work. Particularly, the flow field is dynamically coupled with the heat convection in the fluid and the heat conduction in the solid domain. An iterative conjugate gradient method is applied such that the gradient of the cost function is introduced when the appropriate sensitivity and adjoint problems are defined. In this approach, no a priori information is needed about the unknown function to be determined. Numerical solutions are obtained for the case of a square enclosure centrally-inserted with a solid block and subjected to an unknown heat flux on one side and to known conditions on the remaining sides. Fluid and heat transports are visualized by the streamlines and heatlines respectively, which are evidently affected by the thermal Rayleigh number, solid body size and thermal conductivity of solid phase, and the functional form of the imposed heat flux. The accuracy of the heat flux profile estimations is shown to depend strongly on the thermal Rayleigh number, body size and relative thermal conductivity of the solid material. Effects of functional form of the unknowns, sensors number and position, and measurement errors on the accuracy of estimation are also investigated. The present work is significant for the flow control simultaneously involving the heat conduction and convection.     

Inverse Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of a Functionally Graded Fin

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent base heat flux of a functionally graded fin from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the fin. Subsequently, the distributions of temperature and thermal stresses in the fin can be determined as well. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown base heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements. The influence of measurement errors and measurement location upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent base heat flux, temperature distributions, and thermal stresses can be obtained for the test case considered in this study.     

Estimation of Heat Flux and Thermal Stresses in Functionally Graded Hollow Circular Cylinders

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent heat flux at the inner surface of a functionally graded hollow circular cylinder from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the cylinder. Subsequently, the distributions of temperature and thermal stresses in the cylinder can be determined as well. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements, and the effect of the errors in these measurements upon the precision of the estimated results is also considered. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent heat flux, temperature distributions, and thermal stresses can be obtained for the test case considered in this study.     

Two-dimensional inverse problem in estimating heat flux of pin fins

The two-dimensional inverse problem of estimating the unknown heat flux of a pin fin base has been solved using the conjugate gradient method. The advantage of the conjugate gradient method is that no information on the functional form of the unknown quantity is required beforehand. The accuracy of the inverse analysis is examined by using simulated exact and inexact measurements of temperature in an interior location of a pin fin. Numerical results show that good estimations on the heat flux can be obtained for all the test cases considered here. Furthermore, such a technique can be applied to determine the heat flux acting on an internal wall surface, where direct measurements are difficult to make.     

Inverse estimation of the unknown base heat flux in irregular fins made of functionally graded materials

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle has been successfully applied to an irregular fin made of functionally graded materials to estimate the unknown base heat flux distributions by using temperatures at some measurement locations. The inverse results, in which three different base heat flux distributions are to be determined, have proven current method's capability to accurately estimate arbitrary fin-base heat flux distributions even measurement errors have been taken into account. The temperature data calculated from the direct problem are used to simulate the measured temperature. The influence of measurement errors upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. This method does not need any prior information on the unknown quantity, and results show that excellent estimations can be obtained for the test cases considered in this study.     

Identification of wall heat flux for turbulent forced convection by inverse analysis

An inverse problem for turbulent forced convection between parallel flat plates is investigated. The space- and time-dependent heat flux at the upper wall is estimated from the temperature measurements taken inside the flow. In the present study, the conjugate gradient method is adopted for the estimation of the unknown wall heat flux. No prior information is needed for the functional form of the wall heat flux in the inverse analysis. The effects of the measurement errors, the functional form of the wall heat flux, and the location of the sensors on the accuracy of the estimation are investigated. The reconstruction of the wall heat flux is satisfactory when simulated exact or noisy data are input to the inverse analysis. The sensitivity coefficients are discussed in this paper. As expected, it is shown that the accuracy of the estimation can be improved when the sensors are located closer to the upper wall.     

Inverse problem of transpiration cooling for estimating wall heat flux by LTNE model and CGM method

In this work, a transient inverse problem of transpiration cooling is investigated in detail. The heat flux on the wall to be cooled is estimated by single point temperature measurement. The local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model is utilized to describe the energy conservation of transpiration cooling process, and the conjugate gradient method (CGM) is extended to solve the inverse problem. The accuracy of the solutions of the inverse problem is examined through three given heat fluxes with given measurement errors. The examination shows that with the LTNE model and CGM, satisfactory solutions can be obtained. The influences of the variation in thermal properties, compressibility and the location of sensor on the accuracy of the solutions are analyzed. The analysis indicates that the variation in thermal properties and compressibility should be considered when a large temperature gradient exists, and the sensor location should be as close as possible to the hot wall. The inverse solutions obtained by the measurements of solid and fluid temperatures are compared. Through the comparison, it is found that using the solid temperature measurement as the input of the inverse problem is better than using the fluid temperature measurement.