Abstract: Conjugate gradient method (CGM) is developed for the estimation of surface heat flux in two-dimensional variable geometry heat conduction problem from temperature measurements.In typical exemplified case,it is shown that CGM is feasible and robust.Further studies reveal that estimated results are influenced by number of measurement points and initial estimation.The number of measurement points are related to intensity of heat flux spatial variation.And the final heat flux should be chosen as the initial estimation.

Key words: inverse heat conduction problem, conjugate gradient method, surface heat flux estimation, two-dimensional variable geometry