Inverse Estimation of Interfacial Heat Transfer Coefficient During the Solidification of Sn-5wt%Pb Alloy Using Evolutionary Algorithm

The study of the interfacial heat transfer coefficient (IHTC) is one of the major concerns during solidification of casting. In order to find out the IHTC at the metal–mold interface, a one dimensional transient heat conduction model is numerically investigated during horizontal directional solidification of Sn–5wt%Pb alloy. The forward model is solved using explicit finite difference method to obtain the exact temperatures for the known boundary conditions. The estimation of the unknown IHTC is attempted using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as an inverse approach along with Bayesian framework. In order to prove the robustness of the proposed methodology, the estimation is accomplished for the simulated measurements. The simulated measurements are then added with noise to replicate the experimental data. The present approach not only minimizes the difference between simulated and measured temperatures but also takes in to account “a priori” information about the unknown parameters.