Inverse convection in a flat mini-channel: towards estimation of fluid bulk temperature distribution with infrared thermography

International audienceThis study deals with the solution of an inverse problem in a flat mini-channel of of 1 mm thickness. At this scale, the difficulty is to introduce non-intrusive sensors. The sensors can modify the local flow and therefore the heat transfer. Our objective is to characterize the mean velocity U and the heat transfer coefficient of external exchange h in order to recover the bulk temperature distribution T b (x). The inverse method makes it possible to go back to this information starting from measurement of the temperature fields on the two external faces of the channel and from a corresponding model through the minimization of a least square criterion. In this work, the temperature fields can be obtained either by a numerical model or by infrared thermography. Before an experimental validation by infrared thermography, we perform numerical simulations and a sensitivity analysis of the external temperature fields to the mean flow velocity U and to the external heat transfer coefficient h. The temperature and flux distributions over the internal faces of the walls are estimated by an inverse method then