Solution of inverse heat conduction problems using maximum entropy method

A solution scheme based on the maximum entropy method (MEM) for the solutio n of one-dimensional inverse heat conduction problem is proposed. The prese nt work introduces MEM in order to build a robust formulation of the invers e problem. MEM finds the solution which maximizes the entropy functional un der the given temperature measurements. In order to seek the most likely in verse solution, the present method converts the inverse problem to a non-li near constrained optimization problem. The constraint of the problem is the statistical consistency between the measured temperature and the estimated temperature. Successive quadratic programming (SQP) facilitates the maximu m entropy estimation. The characteristic feature of the method is discussed with the sample numerical results. The presented results show considerable enhancement in the resolution of the inverse problem and bias reduction in comparison with the conventional methods. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier S cience Ltd.