Optimal Experiment Design for Identification of a Heat Diffusion Process with Simulation by a Hybrid Computer

This paper is concerned with the design of an optimal experiment for determining the thermal diffusivity and radiation constant for a heat diffusion process. The design variables considered are the boundary perturbation and the spatial location of a temperature measuring sensor. It is shown that suitable choice of these variables leads to improved estimation accuracy. This example illustrates an approach to design of optimal experiments for distributed parameter systems and the results are further illustrated by a hybrid computer simulation. It is also shown that the design philosophy can be applied to a wide class of systems described by partial differential equations.