An Application of DHW Algorithm for the Solution of Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

A damped heat wave (DHW) algorithm is applied for the temperature distribution calculation in a solution of a linear inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP). A nonlinear least squares algorithm is used for calculation of the unknown boundary heat flux history in a one-dimensional medium. The solution is based on the assumption that the temperature measurements are available, at least, at one point of the medium over the whole time domain. Sample calculations, for a comparison between exact heat sources and estimated ones, are made to confirm the validity of the proposed method. The close agreement between the exact and estimated values calculated for both exact and noisy data shows the potential of the proposed method for finding a relatively accurate heat source distribution in a one-dimensional homogeneous finite medium. The proposed method of solving inverse heat conduction problems is very simple and easy to implement.