Inverse design methods for high-temperature systems

Abstract EN

Inverse problems are those in which measured or specified information at a given location is used to infer the conditions at other locations that cause the measured or specified information.

This paper discusses design of high temperature systems as an inverse problem, because the designer normally specifies the thermal conditions (temperature, heat flux) necessary to achieve a design goal, and wishes to find the necessary conditions at other locations to achieve that goal (heater locations, heater or burner energy input, best system geometry, etc.).

Because the formulation of inverse problems often results in sets of equations that are mathematically ill-conditioned, special techniques are necessary to achieve useful solutions.

For design problems, there are questions of solution existence, smoothness, and multiplicity that must be addressed, and these are discussed in the paper.

Three classes of solution technique are discussed, and some examples of solutions are presented.