Abstract
To help develop large-scale microwave-sintering processes and to explore the feasibility of the commercial utilization of this technology, the authors used the recently developed multi-grid 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) code and the 3D Finite-Difference Heat-Transfer (FDHT) code to determine the electromagnetic (EM) fields, the microwave power deposition, and temperature-distribution patterns in layers of samples processed in large-scale multimode microwave cavities. This paper presents results obtained from the simulation of realistic sintering experiments carried out in both 500 and 4,000 liter furnaces operating at 2.45 GHz. The ceramic ware being sintered is placed inside a cubical crucible box made of rectangular plates of various ceramic materials with various electrical and thermal properties. The crucible box can accommodate up to 5 layers of ceramic samples with 16 to 20 cup-like samples per layer. Simulation results provided guidelines regarding selection of crucible-box materials, crucible-box geometry, number of layers, shelf material between layers, and the fraction volume of the load vs. that of the furnace. Results from the FDTD and FDHT simulations will be presented and various tradeoffs involved in designing an effective microwave-processing system will be compared graphically.
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