Steady-state temperature of microwave-heated refractories as a function of microwave power and refractory geometry

Using a simple energy balance model developed in a previous paper, this study presents an improved least-squares fitting equation that relates Ti (the steady-state inside wall temperature for hollow cylindrical refractory caskets) to microwave input power and to casket geometry parameters. For microwave input power ranging from 200 to 700 W, 132 new casket/input power combinations were measured, adding to the authors earlier data characterizing twelve different casket geometries at a fixed input power of 600 W. When the power dissipated by the casket dominates the power dissipated by the entire casket/specimen system, then the inner wall temperature of the empty casket, Ti, should approximate the processing temperature in the casket when the specimens are present.