The inverse problem of heat conduction in the case of non-uniqueness: A functional identification approach

A problem of identification of the set of a thermal-conductivity coefficients for the nonlinear heat equation in the case of non-uniqueness is considered. Classes of inverse heat conduction problems (IHCP) with a non-unique solution are defined. Explicit descriptions of sets of thermal-conductivity coefficients for these classes are obtained. For solving the identification problem the functional identification approach is used. Unlike traditional methods, the proposed algorithm does not utilize approximations of the coefficient with a finite system of basis functions. The results of computational experiments are presented. It is shown that the functional identification approach makes it possible to numerically identify the non-uniqueness of the solution of the inverse problem of heat conduction.