Reconstruction of time-dependent boundary heat flux by a BEM-based inverse algorithm

The objective of this study is to reconstruct an unknown time-dependent heat flux distribution at a surface whose temperature history is provided by a broad-band thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) thermographic technique. The information given for this inverse problem is the surface temperature history. Although this is not an inverse problem, it is solved as such in order to filter the errors in input temperatures which are reflected in errors in heat fluxes. We minimize a quadratic functional which measures the sum of the squares of the deviation of estimated (computed) temperatures relative to measured temperatures provided by the TLC thermography. The objective function is minimized using the Levenberg-Marquardt method, and we develop an explicit scheme to compute the required sensitivity coefficients. The unknown flux is allowed to vary in space and time. Results are presented for a simulation in which a spatially varying and time-dependent flux is reconstructed over an airfoil. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.