STABLE APPROXIMATION OF THE HEAT FLUX IN AN INVERSE HEAT CONDUCTION PROBLEM

We consider an ill-posed problem for the heat equation $u_{xx}=u_t$ in the quarter plane {x > 0, t > 0}. We propose a new method to compute the heat flux $h(t)=u_x(1,t)$ from the boundary temperature g(t) = u(1, t). The operator $g{\mapsto}h=Hg$ is unbounded in $L^2({\mathbb{R}})$, so we approximate h(t) by $h_{\delta}(t)=u_x(1+{\delta},\;t)$, ${\delta}{\rightarrow}0$. When noise is present, the data is $g_{\epsilon}$ leading to a corresponding heat $h_{{\delta},{\epsilon}}$. We obtain an estimate of the error ${\parallel}h-h_{{\delta},{\epsilon}}{\parallel}$, as well as the error when $h_{{\delta},{\epsilon}}$ is approximated by the trapezoidal rule. With an a priori choice rule ${\delta}={\delta}({\epsilon})$ and ${\tau}={\tau}({\epsilon})$, the step size of the trapezoidal rule, the main theorem gives the error of the heat flux as a function of noise level ${\epsilon}$. Numerical examples show that the proposed method is effective and stable.