Experimental and computational inverse thermal analysis of transient, non-linear heat flux in circular pin fin with temperature-dependent thermal properties

The functional form of the heat flux for three different profiles namely constant, Phi = 0.98; using (q = VIVA), linear-triangular and non-linear realistic under static and dynamic conditions are retrieved with the aid of inverse analysis based on the GSSM for a pin fin (length = 0.35 m, cross-section area = 7.85 x 10(-5) m(2)) with all temperature-dependent parameters. The forward model is solved using pdepe solver (d tau = 0.4167, d xi=0.1429). The recovered heat flux is in good agreement with its expected profile. The acceptable measurement errors are 5%, 3% and 4% with errors of 3.72%, 6% and 4% under static conditions and 4%, 2% and 2% with errors of 11%, 9.6% and 14% under dynamics condition for constant, triangular and realistic profile type of heat flux respectively. Furthermore, experiments are conducted and the functional heat flux has been retrieved for experimental data. The two retrieved heat fluxes follow similar trends. The effect of the measurement errors in the input temperature upon the exactitude of the retrieved heat flux is also studied. The present procedure is useful in designing heat flux meters for a variety of thermal applications.