Inverse prediction of frictional heat flux and temperature in sliding contact with a protective strip by iterative regularization method

In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent frictional heat flux at the interface of two semi-spaces, one of them is covered by a strip of coating, during a sliding-contact process from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within one of the semi-space. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat generation; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. Results show that the relative position between the measured and the estimated quantities is of crucial importance to the accuracy of the inverse algorithm. The current methodology can be applied to the prediction of heat generation in engineering problems involving sliding-contact elements.