Microwave heating of metals

Modelling of industrial microwave furnaces is a multi-physics, non-linear, temperature-dependent, complicated process given that the computational domain could become exceptionally large, and many of the utilised furnace material properties are functions of temperature that remain unknown or unpublished. This research details the authors´ efforts for accurate modelling of the industrial microwave furnace operation including extensive material characterisation at elevated temperatures. The research further develops the coupled electromagnetic and transient thermal model to represent the furnace´s dynamic heating phenomenon which is presented as a non-linear time-variant multi-physics process. Results will be shown for heating copper, as an example, to temperatures above 1000´C based on the authors´ experiments and from their modelling efforts. Comparison of data will be made to examine how representative of the experimental process is the modelling effort. Conclusions for development of such models and their support for further optimisation studies of the microwave metal heating process will be discussed.