On Estimating Thermophysical Properties of Liquid Metals

A numerical model for estimating the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of liquid metals has been developed using a combination of the Levenberg–Marquardt method and the golden-section technique. The model solves the inverse problem with the progressive reduction of the intervals based on the measured temperature distribution. This technique was verified using a one-dimensional unsteady numerical experiment in which liquid metal is placed in a cylindrical container. The measured temperature distribution was generated from the numerical solution of the direct problem. The results show reasonable error between the estimated properties and the values used in the direct numerical solution.