A technique for uncertainty analysis for inverse heat conduction problems

A technique is presented for the uncertainty analysis of the linear Inverse Heat Conduction Problem (IHCP) of estimating heat flux from interior temperature measurements. The selected IHCP algorithm is described. The uncertainty in thermal properties and temperature measurements is considered. A propagation of variance equation is used for the uncertainty analysis. An example calculation is presented. Parameter importance factors are defined and computed for the example problem; the volumetric heat capacity is the dominant parameter and an explanation is offered. Thoughts are presented on extending the analysis to include the non-linear problem of temperature dependent properties.