Double pendulum mode stirrer for improved multimode microwave heating performance

Abstract

This is a common way to improve the uniformity of microwave heating by using a mode stirrer. However, the conventional mode stirrer is a reciprocating periodic motion, which in some cases does not effectively improve the uniformity of microwave heating. In this study, a mode stirrer with double pendulum structure was creatively proposed. Due to the chaotic characteristics of the double pendulum motion process, the mode stirrer process is no longer a traditional periodic motion, and this chaotic stirrer process will affect the uniformity of heating. Based on the finite element method combined with the implicit function and level set method, the microwave heating process with double pendulum mode stirrer was calculated, and the multiphysics coupling simulation of structure-electromagnetic-heat transfer was realized. The heating performance under different double pendulum mode stirrers was studied and compared with the heating results of the single pendulum mode stirrer. The results show that the double pendulum mode stirrer with a specific initial position can effectively improve the heating uniformity without reducing the heating efficiency.