Solution of non-linear inverse heat conduction problems using the method of lines

Two space marching methods for solving the one-dimensional nonlinear inverse heat conduction problems are presented. The temperature-dependent thermal properties and the boundary condition on the accessible part of the boundary of the body are known. Additional temperature measurements in time are taken with a sensor located in an arbitrary position within the solid, and the objective is to determine the surface temperature and heat flux on the remaining part of the unspecified boundary. The methods have the advantage that time derivatives are not replaced by finite differences and the good accuracy of the method results from an appropriate approximation of the first time derivative using smoothing polynomials. The extension of the first method presented in this study to higher dimensions inverse heat conduction problems is straightforward.