Dr. Yogesh Jaluria, Board of Governors Professor from Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Rutgers University will give a seminar titled "Solution of Inverse Problems in Thermal Systems and Processes" to the interested faculty and students at Discovery Park.

Abstract

In most analytical and numerical solutions, the basic equations that describe the process, as well as the relevant and appropriate boundary conditions, are known. Interest lies in obtaining a unique solution that satisfies the equations and bound-ary conditions. This may be termed as the direct or forward solution. However, there are many problems, particularly in practi-cal systems, where the desired result is known, but the conditions needed for achieving this are unknown. These are generally known as inverse problems and are of particular interest in thermal processes and systems. For instance, the temperature, shear, or pressure variation to which a component must be subjected to obtain desired characteristics in a manufacturing sys-tem is known or prescribed. However, the boundary and initial conditions, in terms of heat input, pressure, flow rate and tem-perature, are not known and must be determined by solving the inverse problem. Such problems are commonly encountered in practical thermal processes.

This lecture focuses on inverse problems in thermal convection and considers a few fundamental and practical circumstances. The inverse convection problems of a thermal plume or jet in cross flow and of a heat source on a vertical flat plate are of par-ticular interest in environmental problems and in fire safety. The inverse problem involves determination of the strength and location of the heat source or the jet by employing a few selected data points downstream. A major concern is the non-uniqueness of the solution and optimization techniques are used to reduce the uncertainty. A predictor-corrector strategy is outlined, along with optimization to minimize the data points needed and to ensure uniqueness of the solution. Another ap-proach based on search and optimization is developed to solve the inverse natural convection flow due to a finite heat source, such as an electronic component or a fire, on a wall. Similarly, another problem considered here is a furnace whose wall tem-perature distribution is not known, but a few selected data points on a rod at the center of the furnace are used to solve the inverse problem to determine the wall temperature to a fair level of accuracy and uniqueness. Again, optimization of the pro-cess is used to develop an efficient approach and obtain an essentially unique solution. These basic approaches can be extended to other inverse convection transport problems and a few additional examples are given.

Biography

Dr. Jaluria is Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His research encompasses convection, fires, materials processing, thermal man-agement of electronics, energy, and environment. He is the author/co-author of 10 books, and editor/coeditor of 15 conference proceedings, 14 books, and 16 special issues of archival journals. He has contrib-uted over 600 technical articles, including 230 in archival journals and 22 book chapters. Dr. Jaluria has 3 patents and 7 copyrighted software. He has received several awards and honors for his work, such as the prestigious 2020 Holley Medal from ASME, 2010 A.V. Luikov Award from the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer in recognition of outstanding work done over his career, the 2007 Kern Award from AIChE, the 2003 Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award from ASME, and the 2002 Max Jakob Memorial Award, the highest international recognition in heat transfer, from ASME and the AIChE. He received the 2000 Freeman Scholar Award and the 1995 Heat Transfer Memorial Award from ASME. He has served as Department Chairman and as Dean of Engineering. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Heat Transfer and as Editor of Computational Mechan-ics. He served as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the ASME Heat Transfer. He is an Honorary Member of ASME, a Fellow of AAAS, ASTFE and APS, and an Associate Fellow of AIAA. He was the founding President of the American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineering (ASTFE) from 2014-2019.