Singular Superposition/Boundary Element Method for Reconstruction of Multi-dimensional Heat Flux Distributions with Application to Film Cooling Holes

A hybrid singularity superposition/boundary element-based inverse problem method for the reconstruction of multi-dimensional heat flux distributions is developed. Cauchy conditions are imposed at exposed surfaces that are readily reached for measurements while convective boundary conditions are unknown at surfaces that are not amenable to measurements such as the walls of the cooling holes. The purpose of the inverse analysis is to determine the heat flux distribution along cooling hole surfaces. This is accomplished in an iterative process by distributing a set of singularities (sinks) inside the physical boundaries of the cooling hole (usually along cooling hole centerline) with a given initial strength distribution. A forward steady-state heat conduction problem is solved using the boundary element method (BEM), and an objective function is defined to measure the difference between the heat flux measured at the exposed surfaces and the heat flux predicted by the BEM under the current strength distribution of the singularities. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) iteratively alters the strength distribution of the singularities until the measuring surfaces heat fluxes are matched, thus satisfying Cauchy conditions. The distribution of the heat flux at the walls of the cooling hole is determined in a post-processing stage after the inverse problem is solved. The advantage of this technique is to eliminate the need of meshing the surfaces of the cooling holes, which requires a large amount of effort to achieve a high quality mesh. Moreover, the use of singularity distributions significantly reduces the number of parameters sought in the inverse problem, which constitutes a tremendous advantage in solving the inverse problem, particularly in the application of film cooling holes