Thermographic Phosphors as a Means of Estimating Heating Rate to Solve the Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

Abstract

In search of a more accurate method of measuring heat flux, a new approach to the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem is examined. The inverse heat conduction problem traditionally uses temperature measurements to estimate boundary heat fluxes. Inverse problems are ill-posed, so small errors inherent in the temperature measurement are amplified in the solution. Research shows that solutions for heat flux are more accurate with less error using heating rate measurements rather than using temperature measurements. Because there currently is no method of measuring heating rate, defined as the first time derivative of temperature, the author proposes a new method of heating rate determination using thermographic phosphors. Thermographic phosphors are traditionally used in non-contact thermometry applications under steady state conditions. The aim of this thesis is to show that thermographic phosphors may be used to measure both temperature and heating rate under transient thermal conditions. Experimental results show that with a significant reduction of noise in the data, this method has the potential for measuring heating rate.