This proposal coordinated by James V. Beck, Michigan State University and Oleg M. Alifanov, Moscow Aviation Institute sponsors a workshop on inverse problems in heat transfer. Nine American researchers from diverse universities will join the Russian group in East Lansing, Michigan in June 1992. Some French researchers may join them under separate funding. Inverse problems in heat transfer provide an essential link between advanced experiments and analysis (including finite difference/element methods). Several joint projects might result that could be applied to the study of ablation, combustion of solids, cooking of meat and other foods, bioengineering heat transfer investigations, processing of thermoset composite materials, and manufacturing and machining processes, to name only a few. Most of the proposed workshop participants attended a conference September 1990 in the USSR and a joint paper is currently in progress. The proposed workshop has the potential of multiplying the individual and national efforts in inverse problems in heat transfer, which are important links between experiments and analysis. This project fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling leading researchers in the United States and Russia to combine complementary efforts and capabilities in areas of strong mutual interest and competence in the field of basic scientific research on the basis of equality, reciprocity, and mutuality of benefit.
