Hierarchical genetic algorithm for non destructive thermal evaluation of layered composite materials

Deals with the estimation of the internal thermal properties distribution in a layered composite material. Our approach, based on a flash method considers only boundaries measurements. The special nature of the diffusion makes this inverse problem particularly difficult, in addition, they are often ill posed. So we present a study based on a global optimisation method from a real coded hierarchical genetic algorithm. Numerical results with the method indicate that close estimates of the unknown distribution can be obtained on highly discontinuous profiles.