Combined Parameter and Function Estimation in Heat Transfer With Application to Contact Conductance

This paper discusses parameter estimation, function estimation, and a combination of the two. An example of parameter estimation is the determination of thermal conductivity of solids from transient temperature measurements. An example of function estimation is the inverse heat conduction problem, which uses transient temperature measurements to determine the surface heat flux history. The examples used herein involve the determination of the thermal contact conductance. Two sets of very good data are analyzed. One set of steady-state data was obtained by Antonetti and Eid (1987). The other set was obtained by Moses and Johnson (1986) under transient conditions for periodic contact. Both sets of data are used to illustrate parameter, function, and combined estimation. It is demonstrated that the proposed methods are more powerful then commonly accepted methods. Many other heat transfer problems can be treated using the proposed techniques.