Finite element method for solving nonlinear inverse diffusion problem

In this paper, a numerical method based on the finite element method and the least square scheme with the Tikhonov regularization method for nonlinear inverse diffusion problem is presented. For this propose, first finite element method and basis functions will be used to discretize the variational form of the problem; then the least square scheme and Tikhonov regularization method are proposed to correct diffusion. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown diffusion coefficient in the present study, and so, it is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. Numerical result shows that a good estimation on the unknown functions of the inverse problem can be obtained.