A Finite Element Approximation of an Optimal Insulation Problem with Convective Heat Transfer
For engineers designing thermal protection systems, this provides a rigorous numerical framework for optimizing insulation distribution under convective heat transfer.
The paper develops a finite element method for an optimal insulation problem with convective heat transfer, proving well-posedness, stability, and convergence. Numerical experiments confirm predicted error decay rates and demonstrate the method on a 3D spacecraft geometry.
A finite element discretization of an optimal insulation problem with convective heat transfer is considered. The model is formulated as a non-smooth, two-variable convex minimization problem. It accounts for the temperature distribution in a thermally conducting body $Ω\subseteq\mathbb{R}^d$, with $d\in \{2,3\}$, and the distribution of a given amount of insulation material on an insulated boundary part $Γ_I\subseteq \partialΩ$. The surface integral over the insulated boundary $Γ_I$ is approximated by a mass-lumping quadrature that preserves the structure of the continuous setting and, in particular, yields discrete optimality conditions mirroring their continuous counterparts. Well-posedness, stability, and weak convergence of discrete solutions to the continuous ones are established. Furthermore, a block coordinate descent algorithm for the computation of the discrete solutions is formulated and its linear convergence is derived. Under suitable regularity assumptions, uniform $L^\infty(Γ_I)$-bounds and $\textit{a priori}$ error estimates for both the temperature distribution and the distribution of a given amount of insulation material are obtained. Numerical experiments are carried out that confirm the predicted error decay rates and demonstrate the method in a qualitative three-dimensional test on a realistic spacecraft crew module capsule geometry with idealized reentry-heating Robin data.