ESTIMATION OF A STATE-DEPENDENT MODEL PARAMETER

A numerical algorithm was developed which estimates a state-dependent model parameter on the basis of transient state observation data The a lgorithm was presented for the problem of estimating the temperature d ependence of thermal diffusivity in a one-dimensional heat equation. T he estimation problem was converted into a finite dimensional optimiza tion problem by the least-squares formulation and B-splines representa tion of the parameter. Numerical experiments were performed using simu lated observation data as well as the actual observation data obtained in a heat conduction experiment on rubber compound layers. The perfor mance of the algorithm was discussed in relation to the effect of the parameter representation scheme, the quality and quantity of the data