Simulation of the curing of composite materials using microwave radiation with control of individual magnetrons

Abstract

The traditional approach to the organization of the technological process of curing a binder polymer using microwave radiation is to rotate a workpiece around one axes in order to reduce the non-uniformity of its heating. Nevertheless, using this technical solution might lead to considerable difficulties when rotating larger workpieces, creating desired pressure on their surfaces and diagnosing the process. The approach suggesting that the workpiece itself remains stationary while the uniformity of its heating is achieved by creating a traveling electromagnetic wave in the operating area is to be considered a more promising direction in the development of curing technology. However, creating such a wave would require constructing a new and rather complex scheme for individual control of magnetrons, the theory of which has not been developed yet. The present work offers such a scheme of individual control and shows that using it allows to reduce the non-uniformity of the temperature field in a workpiece made of a polymer composite material with the maximum deviation of no more than 60 K, whereas the level of non-uniformity in the central part of the workpiece is not higher than 21 K.