Inverse estimation for unknown fouling geometry on inner wall of forced-convection pipe (Q623294)

Quantitative studies of heat transfer processes occurring in many industrial applications often require accurate knowledge of boundary conditions, such as heat flux and thermal properties of materials. These important quantities were conventionally obtained by experiments. The studies of inverse heat conduction problems (IHCP) have offered convenient alternatives in order to obtain accurate quantities, such as heat sources, thermal properties of materials, and boundary temperatures or heat flux distributions in many heat conduction problems. In these cases, the direct heat conduction problems are concerned with the determination of the temperature at the interior points of a region when the initial and boundary conditions, heat generations, and properties of materials are specified, whereas the IHCP involves the determination of the surface conditions, heat transfer, and the thermal properties, etc., from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken on or within the domain. However, when the geometry itself is subjected to change and becomes unknown, a technique of solving the shape identification problem (or the inverse geometry problem) can be used to estimate the unknown domain configurations. For a shape identification problem, the boundary geometry is unknown. Thus, the computational domain cannot be determined due to the unknown boundary. Therefore, the inverse problem becomes extremely complicated. In the past, there have been many researchers devoted to the study of inverse geometry problems using a variety of numerical methods, but there have been only very few studies on the shape identification problem involving conjugate heat transfer, which is commonly encountered in heat-exchanger problems. The performance of a heat exchanger usually deteriorates with time as a result of accumulation of deposits in heat-transfer surfaces. The layer of deposit (fouling) represents additional thermal resistance to heat transfer and causes the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger to drop. In addition, the fouling could narrow the flow channel and result in an increase in pumping power. Since fouling is often formed in the inner wall of a heat-exchanger pipe, it is difficult to obtain the exact configuration of the fouling layer, especially if the pipe is very long. The objective of the present inverse geometry problem is to estimate the unknown irregular fouling profile on the inner wall of a pipe system, which involves conjugate heat transfer, based on the simulated temperature measurements taken within the pipe wall. The system includes a fully developed pipe flow, a solid pipe wall, and a fouling layer which is built up on the pipe inner wall and whose profile is unknown. In this article, we present the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle solving the inverse geometry problem to determine the fouling layer configuration in the pipe system. The results show that the excellent estimation of the fouling-layer profile can be obtained for the test case considered in this study. The technique presented in this study can be used in a warning system to call for pipe maintenance when the thickness of fouling exceeds a predefined criterion.