To model the microstuctural and mechanical responses of quenched metallic components,
the evolution of the thermal field must be known precisely; the latter, in turn, depends on
accurate values of the thermal boundary conditions. In this work, the heat transfer boundary conditions
on both sides of a stainless steel disk, held horizontally while a water column impinged on its
lower surface to cool it from 850°C to room temperature, were characterized as heat flux histories
which are functions of the radial coordinate. Thermal responses, measured with embedded thermocouples
and a computer-controlled data acquisition system, were used to estimate the heat flux histories
by solving the corresponding inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP), considering radial
symmetry. The optimization problem also included the estimation of sub-areas associated with different
heat extraction rates on both the lower and upper surfaces of the disk. The fluctuating interaction
between the water column and the cooling disk was captured in the estimated heat flux histories.
The estimated thermal boundary conditions were validated by computing the thermal response at
the thermocouple locations by solving the direct heat conduction problem (DHCP) with a computer
program based on the finite-element method. A good agreement between experimentally determined
and computed thermal responses was observed, thus verifying the methodology employed.
