Coupled Electromagnetic-Thermodynamic Simulations of Microwave Heating Problems Using the FDTD Algorithm

Abstract

A practical implementation of a hybrid simulation system capable of modeling coupled electromagnetic-thermodynamic problems typical in microwave heating is described. The paper presents two approaches to modeling such problems. Both are based on an FDTD-based commercial electromagnetic solver coupled to an external thermodynamic analysis tool required for calculations of heat diffusion. The first approach utilizes a simple FDTD-based thermal solver while in the second it is replaced by a universal commercial CFD solver. The accuracy of the two modeling systems is verified against the original experimental data as well as the measurement results available in literature.

Key Words:

• Microwave heating
• coupled numerical modeling
• FDTD algorithm
• multiphysics