Temperature redistribution modelling during intermittent microwave convective heating

Abstract

Microwave power is used for heating and drying processes because of its faster and volumetric heating capability. Nonuniformtemperature distributionduring microwaveapplication is a major drawbackof these processes. Intermittent application of microwavepotentially reduces the impact of non-uniformity and improves energy efficiencyby redistributing the temperature.However, temperature re-distribution during intermittent microwave heating has not been investigated adequately. Consequently, in this study, a coupled electromagnetic with heat and mass transfer model was developed using the finite element methodembedded in COMSOL-Multyphysics software. Particularly, the temperature redistribution due to intermittent heating was investigated. A series of experiments were performed to validate the simulation. The test specimen was an apple and the temperature distribution was closely monitored by a TIC (Thermal Imaging Camera). The simulated temperature profilematched closely with thermal images obtained from experiments. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.