Two-dimensional non-linear inverse heat conduction problem based on the singular value decomposition

In this paper an efficient sequential method is developed in order to estimate the unknown boundary condition on the surface of a body from transient temperature measurements inside the solid. This numerical approach for solving an inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) takes into account two-dimensional problems, planar or axisymmetric cylindrical, composite materials with irregular boundaries and temperature-dependent thermal properties. The unknown surface condition is assumed to have abrupt changes at unknown times. The regularization procedure used for the solution of the IHCP is based on the singular value decomposition technique. An overall estimate of error is defined in order to find the optimal estimation in the 2D IHCP (linear and non-linear). The stability and accuracy of the scheme presented is evaluated by comparison with the Function Specification Method. This comparative study has been carried out using numerically simulated data, and the parameters considered include shape of input, noise level of measurement, size of time step and temperature-dependent thermal properties. A good agreement was found between both methods. Beside this, the slight differences on estimations and number of future temperatures are discussed in this paper.     

Thermocouple Data in the Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

The presence of thermocouples inside a heat-conducting body will distort the temperature field in the body and may lead to significant bias in the temperature measurement. If temperature histories obtained from thermocouples are used in the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP), errors are propagated into the IHCP results. The bias in the thermocouple measurements can be removed through use of appropriate detailed thermocouple models to account for the dynamics of the sensor measurement. The results of these models can be used to generate correction kernels to eliminate bias in the thermocouple reading, or can be applied as sensitivity coefficients in the IHCP directly. Three-dimensional and axisymmetric models are compared and contrasted and a simple sensitivity study is conducted to evaluate the significance of thermal property selection on the temperature correction and subsequent heat flux estimation. In this paper, a high-fidelity thermocouple model is used to account for thermocouple bias in an experiment to measure heat fluxes from solidifying aluminum to a sand mold. Correction kernels are obtained that are used to demonstrate the magnitude of the temperature measurement bias created by the thermocouples. The corrected temperatures are used in the IHCP to compute the surface heat flux. A comparison to IHCP results using uncorrected temperatures shows the impact of the bias correction on the computed heat fluxes.     

Inverse estimation of spatially and temporally varying heating boundary conditions of a two-dimensional object

In many dynamic heat transfer situations, the temperature at the heated boundary is not directly measurable and can be obtained by solving an inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) based on measured temperature or/and heat flux at the accessible boundary. In this study, IHCP in a two-dimensional rectangular object is solved by using the conjugate gradient method (CGM) with temperature and heat flux measured at the boundary opposite to the heated boundary. The inverse problem is formulated in such a way that the heat flux at heated boundary is chosen as the unknown function to be recovered, and the temperature at the heated boundary is computed as a byproduct of the IHCP solution. The measurement data, i.e., the temperature and heat flux at the opposite boundary, are obtained by numerically solving a direct problem where the heated boundary of the object is subjected to spatially and temporally varying heat flux. The robustness of the formulated IHCP algorithm is tested for different profiles of heat fluxes along with different random errors of the measured heat flux at the opposite boundary. The effects of the uncertainties of the thermophysical properties and back-surface temperature measurement on inverse solutions are also examined.     

A two-dimensional inverse heat conduction problem in estimating the fluid temperature in a pipeline

An inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) was investigated in the two-dimensional section of a pipe elbow with thermal stratification to estimate the unknown transient fluid temperatures near the inner wall of the pipeline. An inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method (CGM) was proposed to solve the IHCP using temperature measurements on the outer wall. In order to examine the accuracy of estimations, some comparisons have been made in this case. The temperatures obtained from the solution of the direct heat conduction problem (DHCP) using the finite element method (FEM) were pseudo-experimental input data on the outer wall for the IHCP. Comparisons of the estimated fluid temperatures with experimental fluid temperatures near the inner wall showed that the IHCP could accurately capture the actual temperature in form of the frequency of the temperature fluctuations. The analysis also showed that the IHCP needed at least 13 measurement points for the average absolute error to be dramatically reduced for the present IHCP with 37 nodes on each half of the pipe wall.     

Heat flux estimation of a plasma rocket helicon source by solution of the inverse heat conduction problem

A solution of the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) by the steepest descent method is carried out in order to determine the waste heat flux from a helicon plasma discharge using transient surface temperature measurements obtained from infrared thermography. The infrared camera data is calibrated against thermocouple data and mapped to real locations on the observed surface. The magnitude and distribution of the heat flux to the gas containment tube in the helicon is investigated as the applied power, gas flow rate, magnetic field distribution and neutral gas are varied.     

Inverse heat conduction estimation of inner wall temperature fluctuations under turbulent penetration

Turbulent penetration can occur when hot and cold fluids mix in a horizontal T-junction pipe at nuclear plants. Caused by the unstable turbulent penetration, temperature fluctuations with large amplitude and high frequency can lead to time-varying wall thermal stress and even thermal fatigue on the inner wall. Numerous cases, however, exist where inner wall temperatures cannot be measured and only outer wall temperature measurements are feasible. Therefore, it is one of the popular research areas in nuclear science and engineering to estimate temperature fluctuations on the inner wall from measurements of outer wall temperatures without damaging the structure of the pipe. In this study, both the one-dimensional(1D) and the two-dimensional(2D) inverse heat conduction problem(IHCP) were solved to estimate the temperature fluctuations on the inner wall. First, numerical models of both the 1D and the 2D direct heat conduction problem(DHCP) were structured in MATLAB, based on the finite difference method with an implicit scheme. Second, both the 1D IHCP and the 2D IHCP were solved by the steepest descent method(SDM), and the DHCP results of temperatures on the outer wall were used to estimate the temperature fluctuations on the inner wall. Third, we compared the temperature fluctuations on the inner wall estimated by the 1D IHCP with those estimated by the 2D IHCP in four cases:(1) when the maximum disturbance of temperature of fluid inside the pipe was 3℃,(2) when the maximum disturbance of temperature of fluid inside the pipe was 30℃,(3) when the maximum disturbance of temperature of fluid inside the pipe was 160℃, and(4) when the fluid temperatures inside the pipe were random from 50℃ to 210℃.     

A data method using the inner temperature difference to improve the stability of the inverse heat conduction problems

Abstract

This article proposes a method to construct two series systems for improving the stability of the inverse heat conduction problems (IHCP) in a finite slab. The transfer function between the surface heat flux or temperature and the inner temperature difference is respectively obtained by Laplace transform technique firstly. Then the series systems which can solve IHCP based on the inner temperature difference are constructed by replacing the unsuitable zero and pole points of the transfer function approximated by è approximation. Finally the effects of the series systems are evaluated by a typical example. The results of the evaluation show that this method can obtain the surface heat flux and temperature by the inner temperature difference, and enhance the response speed of the measurement system at the same time. In addition this method can also improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the inverse solutions by selectively amplifying the high SNR parts of the inner temperature difference. The present work provides an effective method to improve the stability of IHCP.     

Solution of inverse heat conduction problem using the lattice Boltzmann method

In this paper the D2Q9 lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) was utilized for the solution of a two-dimensional inverse heat conduction (IHCP) problem. The accuracy of the LBM results was validated against those obtained from prevalent numerical methods using a common benchmark problem. The conjugate gradient method was used in order to estimate the heat flux test case. A complete error analysis was performed. As the LBM is attuned to parallel computations, its use is recommended in conjugation with IHCP solution methods.     

Monitoring of transient 3D temperature distribution and thermal stress in pressure elements based on the wall temperature measurement

Abstract

Two methods for monitoring the thermal stresses in pressure components of thermal power plants are presented. In the first method, the transient temperature distribution in the pressure component is determined by measuring the transient wall temperature at several points located on the outer insulated surface of the component. The transient temperature distribution in the pressure component, including the temperature of the inner surface is determined from the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP). In the first method, there is no need to know the temperature of the fluid and the heat transfer coefficient. In the second method, thermal stresses in a pressure component with a complicated shape are computed using the finite element method (FEM) based on experimentally estimated fluid temperature and known heat transfer coefficient. A new thermometer with good dynamic properties has been developed and applied in practice, providing a much more accurate measurement of the temperature of the flowing fluid in comparison with standard thermometers. The heat transfer coefficient on the inner surface of a pressure element can be determined from the empirical relationships available in the literature. A numerical-experimental method of determination of the transient heat transfer coefficient based on the solution of the 3D-inverse heat conduction problem has also been proposed. The heat transfer coefficient on the internal surface of a pressure element is determined based on an experimentally determined local transient temperature distribution on the external surface of the element or the basis of wall temperature measurement at six points located near the internal surface if fluid temperature changes are fast. Examples of determining thermal and pressure stresses in the thick-walled horizontal superheater header and the horizontal header of the steam cooler in a power boiler with the use of real measurement data are presented.     

Practical application of inverse heat conduction for wall condition estimation on a rotating cylinder

The solution of the linear, inverse, transient heat conduction problem (IHCP) in a cylindrical geometry is analysed. The rotating cylinder under investigation is experiencing boiling convection induced by the impingement of a water jet. The initial temperature is known, additional temperature measurements in time are taken with sensors positioned at a constant radius within the solid material, and the estimation of the wall heat flux at the external radius is sought. First, simulated temperature measurements inside the cylinder are processed in order to be used to estimate the wall heat flux. When noise is present in the data, some of the simulated results obtained using the least squares method exhibit oscillatory behavior, but these large oscillations are substantially reduced by the implementation of a regularization technique. Real experimental data are also used for the wall condition estimation and for the subsequent building of local boiling curves are plotted and discussed. The question of the possible effect of a temperature dependent conductivity on the reconstructed wall condition is also considered.