Linear functional minimization for inverse modeling

Abstract

We present a novel inverse modeling strategy to estimate spatially distributed parameters of nonlinear models. The maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimators of these parameters are based on a likelihood functional, which contains spatially discrete measurements of the system parameters and spatiotemporally discrete measurements of the transient system states. The piecewise continuity prior for the parameters is expressed via Total Variation (TV) regularization. The MAP estimator is computed by minimizing a nonquadratic objective equipped with the TV operator. We apply this inversion algorithm to estimate hydraulic conductivity of a synthetic confined aquifer from measurements of conductivity and hydraulic head. The synthetic conductivity field is composed of a low‐conductivity heterogeneous intrusion into a high‐conductivity heterogeneous medium. Our algorithm accurately reconstructs the location, orientation, and extent of the intrusion from the steady‐state data only. Addition of transient measurements of hydraulic head improves the parameter estimation, accurately reconstructing the conductivity field in the vicinity of observation locations.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2015
Source ID
10.1002/2014wr016179

Entities

People

  • B. E. Wohlberg
  • D. A. Barajas‐solano
  • D. M. Tartakovsky
  • Velimir V. Vesselinov

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of California, San Diego

Tags

Readers

  • Approximation Theory.
  • Computer Vision.
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.