AN INVERSE PROBLEM IN PREDICTING TEMPERATURE DEPENDENT HEAT CAPACITY PER UNIT VOLUME WITHOUT INTERNAL MEASUREMENTS

An inverse analysis utilizing the conjugate gradient method and the minimization of adjoint equation is used successfully to estimate the temperature dependent heat capacity per unit volume in a homogeneous medium. No prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat capacity in the present study, thus, it is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The accuracy of the inverse analysis is examined by using simulated exact and inexact measurements obtained within the medium. Results show that an excellent estimation on the heat capacity per unit volume can be obtained by using just boundary measurements (i.e. internal measurements are unnecessary) and the CPU time used in VAX-9420 computer is less than one second. The advantages of applying this algorithm in inverse analysis can greatly simplify the experimental set-up, diminish the sensitivity to the measurement errors and reduce the CPU time in inverse calculation, while the reliable predictions can still be achieved.