A simple method to measure the complex permittivity of materials at variable temperatures

Abstract

Measurement of the complex permittivity (CP) of a material at different temperatures in microwave heating applications is difficult and complicated. In this paper a simple and convenient method is employed to measure the CP of a material over variable temperature. In this method the temperature of a sample is increased experimentally to obtain the formula for the relationship between CP and temperature by a genetic algorithm. We chose agar solution (sample) and a Yangshao reactor (microwave heating system) to validate the reliability and feasibility of this method. The physical parameters (the heat capacity, Cp, density, ρ, and thermal conductivity, k) of the sample are set as constants in the process of simulation and inversion. We analyze the influence of the variation of physical parameters with temperature on the accuracy of the inversion results. It is demonstrated that the variation of these physical parameters has little effect on the inversion results in a certain temperature range.