Numerical solution of retrospective problems of heat conduction

A method is proposed for solving inverse problems of heat conduction involving the determination of the initial temperature field or the moment of time at which a certain physical event took place. The method consists of searching for a model temperature function satisfying the equation of heat conduction and the boundary conditions over the entire region of interest. Other conditions, which are specified in order to ensure the uniqueness of the solution, are satisfied for a set of points. Results of numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the method proposed here.