Numerical simulation framework for radio wave soil treatment for pathogen suppression

Abstract

Thermal pathogen suppression in glasshouse horticulture by treatment with steam generated through combustion of fossil fuel will become progressively less desirable. Radio wave treatment could be an alternative. It has several advantages, the most notable is that it generates heat where it is needed in soil, so that it avoids heat losses and long process duration associated with heat transport. Radio wave treatment is a more dynamic and more complex process though, therefore more advanced development tools are needed to apply it effectively. To this end, this study describes the development of a framework for numerical simulation of this process to aid in the development of the radio wave treatment process. The modeling framework is Comsol Multiphysics in combination with Matlab, and the computational requirements are constrained to workstation grade hardware. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the simulation.