Inverse method applied to thermal forced convection

With the simultaneous development of metrology (sensors, data acquisition) and computing resources (processor speed, storage, software), the engineer carrying out experiments must make judicious use of all this information. Inverse methods are taking off in the wake of these developments: they enable us to trace unknown causes or influencing factors back to the observation of their consequences: measurement. These methods combine metrology on a given system, a model representative of the system's operation and numerical algorithms.

Previous dossiers have already dealt with :

• certain technical aspects of inverting measurements and estimating parameters [AF 4 515] and [AF 4 516] ;

• solving inverse problems in thermal diffusion [BE 8 265][BE 8 266][BE 8 267] , where numerous concepts and tools have been developed.

This dossier covers the treatment of inverse methods in forced thermal convection. This heat transfer method transports heat by means of a fluid set in motion by a field of external forces, such as a pressure difference.

A thermal convection process includes both the notion of heat transport by the fluid (advection) and thermal diffusion within...