Inverse conduction-radiation problem for design analysis in a two-dimensional concentric cylindrical absorbing, emitting and isotropically scattering medium has been solved, when the desired boundary conditions are available on the design surface. The finite-volume method was adopted to deal with energy conservation equation including conduction and radiation. The radiative transfer equation was also taken into consideration in direct problem, whereas the Levenberg-Marquardt method was used to solve a set of equations in inverse problem, which are expressed by errors between estimated and desired total heat fluxes on the design surface. The automatic differentiation as well as the Broyden combined update was utilized to reduce computational time in calculating the sensitivity matrix. The results have shown that the desired total heat flux distribution on design surface could be successfully estimated with less computational time using the present inverse procedure developed here. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.