Microwave Heating Capabilities of Different Susceptor Material: Experimental and Simulation Study

Abstract

Sustainable product development and efficient use of resources is prime and major concern in the present era of modern manufacturing practice. In the current work energy efficient microwave heating techniques is employed for the four different kind (i.e. silicon carbide, graphite, A5grade alumina and pulverized charcoal) of microwave absorbing material. The finite element modeling of susceptor heating was done using COMSOL multi-physics environment. These susceptor material were tested for different microwave power input with fixed exposure time and microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz. It was observed that the A5 grade alumina and silicon carbide material giving higher amount of heating rate for a comparable operating condition of different susceptor material. The experimental validation for the three different power input (540, 720 and 900 W) were done for silicon carbide susceptor material utilizing 2.45 GHz microwave frequency. The results obtained are in close agreement with finite element modeling. The present study will develop a cogent link between the modeling and experimental study of microwave heating behavior under room temperature application for numerous material processing applications.