The conjugate gradient method (CGM), formulated with the adjoint problem, is adopted in this study as the functional minimization tool for the solution of the 2-D steady-state linear inverse heat conduction problem with the aim of estimating the heat flux density distribution on a given surface using the temperature distribution as input data. The robustness of the solution strategy, based on an iterative regularization scheme, is compared with another consolidated estimation methodology adopted in the literature to handle the same problem: the Wiener filtering technique. The comparison is performed by adopting a noisy test signal aimed at simulating infrared temperature maps. Using a comparative approach, the problem's particular difficulties related to the high number of unknowns and to the deficiency of the estimation techniques at the domain's geometrical boundaries are discussed.
NomenclatureSignal amplitude, A ( C) Spatial domain, D Error, Equation (33), E Heat flux density, g (W m À2 ) Performance function, J ( C 2 ) J/M, J* ( C 2 ) Total number of sensors, M Direction of the descent, q (W m À2 ) Heat rate generation per unit volume, q g (W m À3 ) Thickness, s (m) Temperature, T ( C) Spatial coordinates, x, y, X, Y (m) Search step size, Dirac delta function,