Frequency-selected method to improve microwave heating performance

Abstract Microwave heating has been widely used in various fields during recent years. However, it also has a common problem of uneven heating. In this paper, a novel method of selected frequencies is proposed to improve the heating performance. On the basis of integral equation theory, the heating uniformity on small changes in microwave frequency is studied analytically. The results show that the heating performance depends highly on microwave frequencies. Due to the fact that some frequencies should contribute more to improving heating performance than others, the proposed method employing the selected frequencies during the heating process. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to simulate the heating process and assess the performance. Results show that frequency-selected method can improve heating uniformity and heating efficiency effectively, which is also verified by experiment.