Determination of a Time-Dependent Free Boundary in a Two-Dimensional Parabolic Problem

The retrieval of the timewise-dependent intensity of a free boundary and the temperature in a two-dimensional parabolic problem is, for the first time, numerically solved. The measurement, which is sufficient to provide a unique solution, consists of the mass/energy of the thermal system. A stability theorem is proved based on the Green function theory and Volterra’s integral equations of the second kind. The resulting nonlinear minimization is numerically solved using the lsqnonlin MATLAB optimization routine. The results illustrate the reliability, in terms of accuracy and stability, of the time-dependent free surface reconstruction.