Optimal Sensor Spacing in Experimental Determination of Heat Transfer Coefficient by Inverse Analysis

F. Balkan and M. H. Sezar

Abstract
It is shown that there exists an optimal spacing of thermo-sensors in the determination of the experimental heat transfer coefficient of a fluid flowing over a plate. The problem is considered as an inverse heat transfer problem with long thin fin model. The heat transfer coefficient of the fluid is estimated from simulated steady-state temperature measurements along the plate. It is shown theoretically that the inner product of the sensitivity vector, JTJ, should be maximum and the group m n d should be equal to 1.692 to obtain the most accurate coefficients, where m is a system parameter containing heat transfer coefficient h, n is the number of thermo-sensors and d is the sensor spacing. These results are also verified by simulated experiments.

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Keywords
Inverse heat transfer, parameter estimation, convective heat transfer coefficient