A numerical solution of an inverse diffusion problem based on operational matrices of orthonormal polynomials

Abstract

The inverse problem of identifying the diffusion coefficient in the one‐dimensional parabolic heat equation is studied. We assume that the information of Dirichlet boundary conditions along with an integral overdetermination condition is available. By applying the given assumptions, the problem is reformulated as a nonclassical parabolic equation along with the initial and boundary conditions. Then we employ the direct technique based on the operational matrices for integration, differentiation, and the product of the orthonormal polynomials together with the Ritz–Galerkin technique to reduce the main problem to the solution of a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. Numerical simulations are presented to show the applicability of the proposed method.