Inverse problem of estimating transient heat transfer rate on external wall of forced convection pipe

In this study, a conjugate gradient method based inverse algorithm is applied to estimate the unknown space and time dependent heat transfer rate on the external wall of a pipe system using temperature measurements. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat transfer rate; hence, the procedure is classified as function estimation in the inverse calculation. The accuracy of the inverse analysis is examined by using simulated exact and inexact temperature measurements. Results show that an excellent estimation of the space and time dependent heat transfer rate can be obtained for the test case considered in this study. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.