SIGNAL RESTORATION FOR A MASS-TRANSPORT PROBLEM INVOLVING SHEAR DISPERSION

An inverse problem associated with mass transport down a tube, when th e flowing medium has a two-dimensional velocity profile, is examined. The inverse problem of estimation of a temporally varying concentratio n at one end of a long tube, from the measurement of the cross section al average concentration at tine opposite end, is solved. It is shown that this inverse problem, which is associated with shear dispersion, is an ill-posed deconvolution problem. Mollification is used to produc e a well conditioned problem.