An Improved Implementation of An Iterative Method in Boundary Identification Problems

In this paper, an inverse problem of determining geometric shape of a part of the boundary of a bounded domain is considered. Based on a conjugate gradient method, employing the adjoint equation to obtain the descent direction, an identification scheme is developed. The implementation of the method based on the boundary element method (BEM) is also discussed. This method solves the inverse boundary problem accurately without a priori information about the unknown shape to be estimated.     

On a non-linear geometrical inverse problem of Signorini type: identifiability and stability

This paper deals with a non-linear inverse problem of identification of unknown boundaries, on which the prescribed conditions are of Signorini type. We first prove an identifiability result, in both frameworks of thermal and elastic testing. Local Lipschitz stability of the solutions with respect to the boundary measurements is also established, in case of unknown boundaries which are parts of 𝒞^{1, β} Jordan curves, with β>0. © 1998 B. G. Teubner Stuttgart—John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability properties of an inverse parabolic problem with unknown boundaries

We treat the stability issue for an inverse problem arising from non-destructive evaluation by thermal imaging. We consider the determination of an unknown portion of the boundary of a thermic conducting body by overdetermined boundary data for a parabolic initial-boundary value problem. We obtain that when the unknown part of the boundary is a priori known to be smooth, the data are as regular as possible and all possible measurements are taken into account, the problem is exponentially ill-posed. Then, we prove that a single measurement with some a priori information on the unknown part of the boundary and minimal assumptions on the data, in particular on the thermal conductivity, is enough to have stable determination of the unknown boundary. Given the exponential ill-posedness, the stability estimate obtained is optimal. AMS 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 35R30, Secondary 35B60, 33C90     

On the Global-in-Time Existence of a Generalized Solution to a Free-Boundary Problem

A problem with free (unknown) boundary for a one-dimensional diffusion-convection equation is considered. The unknown boundary is found from an additional condition on the free boundary. By the extension of the variables, the problem in an unknown domain is reduced to an initial boundary-value problem for a strictly parabolic equation with unknown coefficients in a known domain. These coefficients are found from an additional boundary condition that enables the construction of a nonlinear operator whose fixed points determine a solution of the original problem.

     

The Fokas Method: The Dirichlet to Neumann Map for the Sine‐Gordon Equation

We study initial boundary value problems for the sine‐Gordon equation on the half‐line via the Fokas method, known as an extension of the inverse scattering transform. The method is based on the simultaneous analysis of both parts of the Lax pair and the global algebraic relation that couples known and unknown boundary values. One of most difficult steps of the method is to characterize the unknown boundary values that appear in the spectral functions. We derive the Dirichlet to Neumann map by using the global relation and the asymptotics of the eigenfunctions. Furthermore, employing perturbation expansion, we present an effective characterizations of the unknown boundary value in terms of the given initial and boundary values, and we then derive the first few terms of the expansions of the Neumann boundary value up to the third order.     

Reconstruction of Geophysical Layers with Shape Optimization and Level Set Methods

A shape optimization method is used to reconstruct the unknown shape of geophysical layers from boundary heat flux measurements by the use of adjoint fields and level sets. The identification of the shape of the geophysical layers by boundary heat flux measurements is necessary for the efficient use of geothermal energy. The method of speed is used to calculate the shape sensitivities, and the continuous adjoint approach is followed for the computation of the shape derivatives. The unknown shape is described with the help of the level set function; the advantage of the shape function is that no mesh movement or remeshing is necessary, but an additional Hamilton-Jacobi equation has to be solved. This equation is solved in an artificial time, where the velocity represents the movement in the direction of the normal vector of the interface. For large optimization steps, re-initialization of the level set function is also necessary, in order to keep the magnitude of the level set function near unity and also to smooth the level set function. Numerical results are given for measured heat fluxes on the boundary of the domain for different time steps and conductivity ratios. (© 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The free-discontinuity problem of inverse crack identification from boundary measurements

The inverse crack identification of planar cracks from elastostatics boundary measurements is regarded as free-discontinuity problem in respect to the unknown displacement field and the discontinuity region of the cracked body. The proposed solution strategy is based on the variational approximation of the sharp interface problem by elliptic functionals developed by Ambrosio and Tortorelli. The numerical calculation is realized by the finite element method. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Recovering a source term in the time-fractional Burgers equation by an energy boundary functional equation

An inverse source problem for the recovery of an unknown space–time dependent source term of a time-fractional Burgers equation is solved in the paper. By using the prescribed boundary data, a sequence of boundary functions is derived, which together with the zero element constitute a linear space. An energy boundary functional equation is derived in the linear space, of which the time-dependent energy is preserved for each energy boundary function. The iterative algorithm used to recover the unknown source with energy boundary functions as the bases is developed, which is robust and convergent fast.     

Regularization in Sobolev Spaces with Fractional Order

We study the minimization of a quadratic functional where the Tichonov regularization term is an H ^s -norm with a fractional s > 0. Moreover, pointwise bounds for the unknown solution are given. A multilevel approach as an equivalent norm concept is introduced. We show higher regularity of the solution of the variational inequality. This regularity is used to show the existence of regular Lagrange multipliers in function space. The theory is illustrated by two applications: a Dirichlet boundary control problem and a parameter identification problem.     

Fully discrete approximation methods for the estimation of parabolic systems and boundary parameters

A spatially and temporally discrete numerical approximation scheme is developed for the identification of a class of semilinear parabolic systems with unknown boundary parameters. The identification problem is formulated as a least squares fit to data subject to an equivalent representation for the dynamics in the form of an abstract evolution equation. Finite-dimensional difference equation state approximations are constructed using a cubic spline-based, Galerkin method and the Padé rational function approximations to the exponential. A sequence of approximating identification problems result, the solutions of which are shown to exist and, in a certain sense, approximate solutions to the original identification problem. Numerical results for two examples, one involving the modeling of biological mixing in deep sea sediment cores, and the other, the estimation of transport parameters for indoor mixing, are discussed. In both examples, the identification is based upon actual experimental data.Parts of the research were carried out while the authors were visitors at the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE), NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, which is operated under NASA Contracts No. NAS1-17070 and No. NAS1-17130.Research supported in part by NSF Grant MCS-8205355, AFOSR Contract 81-0198 and ARO Contract ARO-DAAG-29-K-0029.     

On inverse crack problems in elastostatics

In solid mechanics, nondestructive testing has been an important technique in gathering information about unknown cracks, or defects in material. From a mathematical point of view, this is described as an inverse problem of partial differential equations, that is, the problem is to extract information about the location and shape of an unknown crack from the surface displacement field and traction on the boundary of the elastic material. By using the enclosure method introduced by Prof. Ikehata we can derive the extraction formula of an unknown linear crack from a single set of measured boundary data. Then, we need to have precise properties of a solution of the corresponding boundary value problem; for instance, an expansion formula around the crack tip. In this paper we consider the inverse problem concentrating on this point. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dynamical Reconstruction of Inputs for Contraction Semigroup Systems: Boundary Input Case

In this paper, we study a boundary input system. We assume that the parameters of the systems are known as well as some qualitative information on the admissible inputs, but that the input is unknown. We extend an approach leading to the dynamical reconstruction of unknown inputs to a large class of boundary input systems. The main assumption is that the semigroup describing the free evolution of the system is a contraction semigroup.     

Reconstruction of an Impedance in Two-dimensions from Spectral Data

The two-dimensional spectral inverse problem involves the reconstruction of an unknown coefficient in an elliptic partial differential equation from spectral data, such as eigenvalues. Projection of the boundary value problem and the unknown coefficient onto appropriate vector spaces leads to a matrix inverse problem. Unique solutions of this matrix inverse problem exist provided that the eigenvalue data is close to the eigenvalues associated with the analogous constant coefficient boundary value problem. We discuss here the application of such a technique to the reconstruction of an impedance p in the boundary value problem $$ \eqalign{ -\nabla (\,p \nabla u) = \lambda p u \hbox {\quad in R} \cr u = 0 \hbox {\quad on R}}$$ where R is a rectangular domain. The matrix inverse problem, although nonstandard, is solved by a fixed-point iterative method and an impedance function p * is constructed which has the same m lowest eigenvalues as the unknown p . Numerical evidence of the success of the method will be presented.     

Dynamic load identification for interval structures under a presupposition of ‘being included prior to being measured’

Influences of structural uncertainties in the dynamic load identification are always significant and need to be quantified. In case of insufficient information available, intervals are favorable for modelling uncertainties. To perform the interval propagation in an inverse problem, this paper develops a sequential dual-stage interval identification method under a presupposition that each noisy response, which is an accomplished measurement for reconstructing unknown loads, should be included in the corresponding interval response of the structure exerted by interval loads to be identified. The proposed method transforms the interval identification problem into a classical one at the midpoint of interval parameters and an optimization model for minimizing the radius of each interval load. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by a spatial truss subjected to multiple forces due to the inclusion of each unknown load in the corresponding load. Besides, regularized solutions without exact knowledge of the accuracy loss are recommended to be used as few as possible in the interval identification of unknown loads.     

Application of Sinc-collocation method for solving an inverse problem

In this article, the identification of an unknown time-dependent source term in an inverse problem of parabolic type with nonlocal boundary conditions is considered. The main approach is to change the inverse problem to a system of Volterra integral equations. The resulting integral equations are convolution-type, which by using Sinc-collocation method, are replaced by a system of linear algebraic equations. The convergence analysis is included, and it is shown that the error in the approximate solution is bounded in the infinity norm by the norm of the inverse of the coefficient matrix multiplied by a factor that decays exponentially with the size of the system. To show the efficiency of the present method, an example is presented. The method is easy to implement and yields very accurate results.     

Elastostatic inverse formulation

In this paper an inverse method for solving elastostatic problems with incomplete boundary conditions is presented. In general, inverse problems are ill-posed boundary value problems whose stability and uniqueness of solution and sensitivity-based formulations require additional constraints. In the development we use the Betti-reciprocal theorem to represent the boundary traction field in terms of the boundary and field displacements in an integral form. Initially, we assume the unknown boundary conditions and deformations required to solve the problem. In this way we equate the work done by the exact solution (unknown) to the work done by an assumed solution. Discretizing the resulting equations and using an iterative procedure each step in the solution process becomes the solution to a well-posed problem. Thus, with sufficient perturbations the correct boundary conditions are reconstructed.     

Huygens’ principle and iterative methods in inverse obstacle scattering

The inverse problem we consider in this paper is to determine the shape of an obstacle from the knowledge of the far field pattern for scattering of time-harmonic plane waves. In the case of scattering from a sound-soft obstacle, we will interpret Huygens’ principle as a system of two integral equations, named data and field equation, for the unknown boundary of the scatterer and the induced surface flux, i.e., the unknown normal derivative of the total field on the boundary. Reflecting the ill-posedness of the inverse obstacle scattering problem these integral equations are ill-posed. They are linear with respect to the unknown flux and nonlinear with respect to the unknown boundary and offer, in principle, three immediate possibilities for their iterative solution via linearization and regularization. In addition to presenting new results on injectivity and dense range for the linearized operators, the main purpose of this paper is to establish and illuminate relations between these three solution methods based on Huygens’ principle in inverse obstacle scattering. Furthermore, we will exhibit connections and differences to the traditional regularized Newton type iterations as applied to the boundary to far field map, including alternatives for the implementation of these Newton iterations.     

Inverse problem for the diffusion equation in the case of spherical symmetry

The initial boundary value problem for the diffusion equation is considered in the case of spherical symmetry and an unknown initial condition. Additional information used for determining the unknown initial condition is an external volume potential whose density is the Laplace operator applied to the solution of the initial boundary value problem. The uniqueness of the solution of the inverse problem is studied depending on the parameters entering into the boundary conditions. It is shown that the solution of the inverse problem is either unique or not unique up to a one-dimensional linear subspace.     

Adaptive boundary control of stochastic linear distributed parameter systems described by analytic semigroups

A stochastic adaptive control problem is formulated and solved for some unknown linear, stochastic distributed parameter systems that are described by analytic semigroups. The control occurs on the boundary. The highest-order operator is assumed to be known but the lower-order operators contain unknown parameters. Furthermore, the linear operators of the state and the control on the boundary contain unknown parameters. The noise in the system is a cylindrical white Gaussian noise. The performance measure is an ergodic, quadratic cost functional. For the identification of the unknown parameters a diminishing excitation is used that has no effect on the ergodic cost functional but ensures sufficient excitation for strong consistency. The adaptive control is the certainty equivalence control for the ergodic, quadratic cost functional with switchings to the zero control.This research was partially supported by NSF Grants ECS-9102714, ECS-9113029, and DMS-9305936.     

Source and coefficient identification problems for the wave equation on graphs

Avdonin and Kurasov proposed a leaf peeling method based on the boundary control to recover a potential for the wave equation on a tree. Avdonin and Nicaise considered a source identification problem for the wave equation on a tree. This paper extends the methodology to the wave equation with unknown potential and source distributed parameters defined on a general tree graph.