Estimation of two-sided boundary conditions for two-dimensional inverse heat conduction problems

A hybrid numerical algorithm of the Laplace transform technique and finite- difference method with a sequential-in-time concept and the least-squares s cheme is proposed to predict the unknown surface temperature of two-sided b oundary conditions for two-dimensional inverse heat conduction problems. In the present study, the functional form of the estimated surface temperatur es is unknown a priori. The whole time domain is divided into several analy sis sub-time intervals and then the unknown surface temperatures in each an alysis interval are estimated. To enhance the accuracy and efficiency of th e present method, a good comparison between the present estimations and pre vious results is demonstrated. The results show that good estimations on th e surface temperature can be obtained from the transient temperature record ings only at a few selected locations even for the case with measurement er rors. It is worth mentioning that the unknown surface temperature can be ac curately estimated even though the thermocouples are located far from the e stimated surface. Owing to the application of the Laplace transform techniq ue, the unknown surface temperature distribution can be estimated from a sp ecific time. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.