Numerical estimation of two convective boundary conditions of a two-dimensional rectangular fin

A simultaneous estimation of two convective boundary conditions problem of a two-dimensional rectangular fin is proposed by numerical approach. The aim is to estimate the evolution of the distributions of the unknown heat transfer coefficients from the transient temperature histories taken with several sensors inside a two-dimensional fin. The estimation algorithm of this inverse heat conduction problem is based on the iterative regularization method and on the conjugate gradient method. An optimal choice of the vector of the descent parameters is used in this study and shows an increase in the convergence rate. The effects of some parameters (sensor number, position, measurement errors) on the inverse solutions are discussed. (C) 2010 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.