An inverse meshfree method for heat flux identification based on strain measurement

A new method for identification of unknown heat fluxes is proposed in this paper. The proposed identification method is based on the measured strains, rather than the usual temperature measurements. The basic idea of this work is that the thermal response of systems is much slower than their mechanical response. This means that when a heat flux is applied to a sufficiently constrained member, the strain field develops much faster than the temperature field. Therefore, the time variations of the applied heat flux can be better identified if the strain measurements are utilized. Especial attention is paid to problems in which large heat fluxes or thermal shocks are applied to a structure. In such problems, a large temperature gradient develops near the boundary and a rigorous analysis is required in order to obtain accurate distribution of the temperature and strain fields. In this work, an efficient meshfree method is used for fast and accurate analysis of the associated direct problems.