A new computational scheme on quantitative inner pipe boundary identification based on the estimation of effective thermal conductivity

In the paper, the irregular configuration of the inner pipe boundary is identified based on the estimation of the circumferential distribution of the effective thermal conductivity of pipe wall. In order to simulate the true temperature measurement in the numerical examples, the finite element method is used to calculate the temperature distribution at the outer pipe surface based on the irregular shaped inner pipe boundary to be determined. Then based on this simulated temperature distribution the inverse identification work is conducted by employing the modified one-dimensional correction method, along with the finite volume method, to estimate the circumferential distribution of the effective thermal conductivity of the pipe wall. Thereafter, the inner pipe boundary shape is calculated based on the conductivity estimation result. A series of numerical experiments with different temperature measurement errors and different thermal conductivities of pipe wall have certified the effectiveness of the method. It is proved that the method is a simple, fast and accurate one for this inverse heat conduction problem.