The discrete ordinates method is used to developed a solution to an inverse
radiation problem of temperature field in rectangular furnaces. It is assu
med that, with the exception of the inhomogeneous temperature field, all as
pects of the radiation transport problem are known. A method is developed t
o determine the inhomogeneous temperature field from specified incident rad
iation heat fluxes at the centers of boundary walls. The inverse problem is
solved using conjugate gradient method that minimize the error between the
incident radiation heat fluxes calculated and the experimental data. The r
esults of temperature estimation show that the temperature field can be est
imated accurately, even with noisy data. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.