Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:53:08.233Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Finite-Difference Time-Domain Simulation of Microwave Sintering in A Variable-Frequency Multimode Cavity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Mikel J White ,
Steven F. Dillon ,
Magdy F. Iskander  and
Hal D. Kimrey
Mikel J White
Affiliation:
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Steven F. Dillon
Affiliation:
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Magdy F. Iskander
Affiliation:
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Hal D. Kimrey
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Oak Ridge, TN 37831
Get access

Abstract

There have been recent indications that variable-frequency microwave sintering of ceramics provides several advantages over single-frequency sintering, including more uniform heating, particularly for larger samples. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) code at the University of Utah was modified and used to simulate microwave sintering using variable frequencies and was coupled with a heat-transfer code to provide a dynamic simulation of this new microwave sintering process. This paper summarizes results from the FDTD simulations of sintering in a variable-frequency cavity. FDTD simulations were run in 100-MHz steps to account for the frequency variation in the electromagnetic fields in the multimode cavity. It is shown that a variable-frequency system does improve the heating uniformity when the proper frequency range is chosen. Specifically, for a single ceramic sample (4 × 4 × 6 cm3), and for a variable-frequency range from f = 2.5 GHz to f = 3.2 GHz, the temperature distribution pattern was much more uniform than the heating pattern achieved when using a single-frequency sintering system at f = 2.45 GHz.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 430: Symposium O – Microwave Processing of Materials V , 1996 , 487
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Iskander, M.F., Smith, R.L., Andrade, O., Kimrey, H., and Walsh, L., IEEE Tran. On Microwave Theory and Tech., Vol.42, pp. 793–800, May 1994 Google Scholar
[2] Iskander, M.F. in Microwave Processing of Materials II, edited by Snyder, W.B. Jr., Sutton, W.H., Iskander, M.F., and Johnson, D.L. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 189, San Francisco, CA, 1990) pp. 149–171.Google Scholar
[3] Subirats, M., Iskander, M.F., White, M. J, and Kiggans, J., presented ant the 1996 Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 1996 (unpublished).Google Scholar
[4] Garard, Richard S., Billy Wei, J., and Zak Fathi in 30th Microwave Power Symposium, (IMPI Proc. 30, Denver CO, 1995) pp. 22–24.Google Scholar