Direct error in constitutive equation formulation for inverse heat conduction problem

Abstract

Summary We present a mixed numerical formulation that handles discontinuities well for scalar hyperbolic partial differential equations. The formulation is based on a least‐square error in the constitutive equation. It is motivated by scalar inverse diffusion problems with interior data and applies to convection of a passive scalar in a discontinuous compressible flow field. We motivate the need for a mixed formulation by discretizing using an irreducible finite element method and discuss some of the limitations of that approach. We then develop and prove that the mixed formulation is well posed and verify that it works for problems with continuous and discontinuous thermal conductivity distributions.