Abstract
The effect of material size on the amount and uniformity of power absorbed during microwave heating was evaluated by numerical and experimental methods. A three-dimensional (3D) mathematical model, based on the Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, was solved using the Finite Element Method to predict the power dissipated in the sample. Experimental analysis was performed using a domestic oven and distilled water. Experimental and numerical results showed a good agreement to each other. However, a complex relationship exists between sample size and absorbed power. The modification of the resonance modes in the oven when the sample size is changed may explain it. Furthermore, heating uniformity decreases as the water load size increases because microwave power dissipation occurs mostly near the sample surface due to a lower intensity of resonances inside large samples.
Keywords:
Numerical simulation; microwave heating pattern; load size
HIGHLIGHTS
• A theoretical model has been developed to evaluate the microwave heating in a domestic oven.
• The energy efficiency is function of the sample size.
• Small samples obtain better heating uniformity.
INTRODUCTION
Microwave ovens are common kitchen appliances in many households. They have become popular mainly for their practical and rapid way of reheating food. Microwave heating also has been used in many food processing applications, like cooking [11 Taşkıran M, Olum E, Candoğan K. Changes in chicken meat proteins during microwave and electric oven cooking. J Food Process Preserv [Internet]. 2020 Feb 17;44(2). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpp.14324
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1...
], drying [22 Teleken JT, Quadri MB, Oliveira APN, Laurindo JB, Datta AK, Carciofi BAM. Mechanistic understanding of microwave-vacuum drying of non-deformable porous media. Dry Technol [Internet]. 2020 Feb 19;1-18. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07373937.2020.1728303
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
,33 Teleken J, Porciúncula BDA, Teleken JG, Carciofi BAM. Drying of foods under intermittent supply of microwave energy: proposal for a mathematical model. Acta Sci Technol [Internet]. 2021 Jun 14;43:e51037. Available from: https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciTechnol/article/view/51037
https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/...
], thawing [44 Pitchai K, Chen J, Birla S, Jones D, Gonzalez R, Subbiah J. Multiphysics modeling of microwave heating of a frozen heterogeneous meal rotating on a turntable. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015;80(12):E2803--E2814. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.13136
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.1...
], pasteurization, and sterilization [55 Tang J, Hong Y-K, Inanoglu S, Liu F. Microwave pasteurization for ready-to-eat meals. Curr Opin Food Sci [Internet]. 2018 Oct;23:133-41. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2214799318300201
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. Electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency (915 MHz or 2450 MHz) heats the food by using two mechanisms: dipole rotation and ionic conduction, both caused by the oscillatory polarization of the electric field inside the material. This phenomenon promotes the food's volumetric heating, leading to a higher thermal efficiency and a shorter processing time than traditional heating methods [66 Datta AK, Anatheswaran RC. Handbook of microwave technology for food applications. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.].
The electromagnetic power converted into thermal energy in a microwave oven is affected by several factors that present complex interactions, including the design of the oven cavity [77 Gao X, Liu X, Yan P, Li X, Li H. Numerical analysis and optimization of the microwave inductive heating performance of water film. Int J Heat Mass Transf [Internet]. 2019 Aug;139:17-30. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0017931019301978
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,88 Zhu J, Kuznetsov AV, Sandeep KP. Mathematical modeling of continuous flow microwave heating of liquids (effects of dielectric properties and design parameters). Int J Therm Sci [Internet]. 2007 Apr;46(4):328-41. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1290072906001153
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
], the microwave frequency [99 Resurreccion FP, Luan D, Tang J, Liu F, Tang Z, Pedrow PD, et al. Effect of changes in microwave frequency on heating patterns of foods in a microwave assisted thermal sterilization system. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2015 Apr;150:99-105. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877414004208
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
], and food parameters, such as dielectric properties [1010 Zhang H, Datta AK. Microwave power absorption in single - and multiple - item foods. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2003;81(3):257-65. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
], shape [1111 Bhattacharya M, Basak T. A comprehensive analysis on the effect of shape on the microwave heating dynamics of food materials. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2017 Feb;39:247-66. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S146685641630769X
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,1212 Zhang Z, Su T, Zhang S. Shape Effect on the Temperature Field during Microwave Heating Process. J Food Qual [Internet]. 2018;2018:1-24. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/201...
], and size [1313 Houšová J, Hoke K. Microwave heating – the influence of oven and load parameters on the power absorbed in the heated load. Czech J Food Sci [Internet]. 2011 Nov 18;20(No. 3):117-24. Available from: http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cjfs.htm?volume=20&firstPage=117&type=publishedArticle
http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cj...
]. Such factors can modify the amount and uniformity of the energy dissipated in the food. The non-uniformed volumetric heating is the main concern for the use of microwave in industrial processes due to its impacts on food safety and quality [66 Datta AK, Anatheswaran RC. Handbook of microwave technology for food applications. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.].
The microwave power dissipation inside food is related to the local electric field as established by the Poynting's theorem. The electric field distribution is described by the Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism [1414 Sadiku MNO. Elements of electromagnetics. 5th ed. Porto Alegre: Bookman, Inc.; 2012.]. Mathematical models based on Maxwell's equations are commonly used for simulation analysis of heating processes in microwave ovens because their solutions characterize the exact microwave propagation dynamics [44 Pitchai K, Chen J, Birla S, Jones D, Gonzalez R, Subbiah J. Multiphysics modeling of microwave heating of a frozen heterogeneous meal rotating on a turntable. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015;80(12):E2803--E2814. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.13136
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.1...
,1515 Salvador A, Teleken J, Travassos XL, Avila SL, Carciofi B. Multiphysics Modeling to Assist Microwave Cavity Design for Food Processing. Int J Electr Comput Eng Res [Internet]. 2022 Jun 15;2(2):1-10. Available from: https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233
https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/vi...
16 Zhang Y, Yang H, Yan B, Zhu H, Gao W, Zhao J, et al. Continuous flow microwave system with helical tubes for liquid food heating. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2021 Apr;294:110409. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877420304957
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
-1717 Gulati T, Zhu H, Datta AK, Huang K. Microwave drying of spheres: Coupled electromagnetics-multiphase transport modeling with experimentation. Part II: Model validation and simulation results. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2015;96:326-37. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308515001030
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. Computer-aided studies based on Maxwell’s equations are an effective tool for examining the causes of changes in microwave power dissipation and finding cause-effect relationships with process conditions. Such relationships can help developers of microwavable food products and microwave ovens, reducing costs and time during the design of process, equipment, and products.
With computer-aided engineering, process and product design based on prototypes can shift to a model-based approach that simulates a virtual representation of the product or process. This reduces the need for prototypes, minimizes trial-and-error experimentation, and reduces time to market and resource use [1818 Datta A, Nicolaï B, Vitrac O, Verboven P, Erdogdu F, Marra F, et al. Computer-aided food engineering. Nat Food [Internet]. 2022 Nov 3;3(11):894-904. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00617-5
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-0...
]. For example, Chen and coauthors [1919 Chen F, Warning AD, Datta AK, Chen X. Susceptors in microwave cavity heating: Modeling and experimentation with a frozen pie. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2017 Feb;195:191-205. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877416303417
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
] used numerical simulation to evaluate the effect of a susceptor (a metalized film attached to paperboard) on heating frozen food in a package in microwave ovens. Similarly, Jung and coauthors [2020 Jung H, Lee MG, Yoon WB. Effects of Container Design on the Temperature and Moisture Content Distribution in Pork Patties during Microwave Heating: Experiment and Numerical Simulation. Processes [Internet]. 2022 Nov 13;10(11):2382. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/11/2382
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/11/238...
] used numerical simulation to evaluate the effect of container (packaging) design on the temperature distribution inside the food during microwave heating. Regarding process design, Costa and coauthors [2121 da Costa FO, Alvarenga TF, de Mesquita TVC, Petri Júnior I. Hybrid drying of pulped arabica coffee cherry beans ( Coffea arabica L. cv. Catuai ) using a hexagonal microwave dryer designed by numerical simulations. J Food Process Eng [Internet]. 2021 May 23;44(5). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpe.13666
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1...
] designed a hexagonal microwave dryer using numerical simulations, while Salvador and coauthors [1515 Salvador A, Teleken J, Travassos XL, Avila SL, Carciofi B. Multiphysics Modeling to Assist Microwave Cavity Design for Food Processing. Int J Electr Comput Eng Res [Internet]. 2022 Jun 15;2(2):1-10. Available from: https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233
https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/vi...
] evaluated the effect of the number of magnetrons on the electric field distribution inside the cavity.
In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of material size (cylindrical shaped) and dimensions (radius vs. height) during heating in a microwave oven. A three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic model based on Maxwell's equations was developed to quantify the power dissipated in the material, and the uniformity of heating was evaluated based on the coefficient of variation (COV) of the microwave power density. The validation was based on experimental data of power dissipated in water loads heated in a household microwave oven.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Experimental procedure
The experimental analyses were performed using a household microwave oven with a cavity volume of 45 dm³, operating at 2450 MHz, and a rated power of 1000 W (Electrolux, MEX55, Brazil). Eight loads of distilled water ( = 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.8, 0.5, 0.4, 0.25, and 0.15 kg) and griffin beakers of borosilicate glass (2.0, 1.0, 0.6, 0.25, and 0.15 dm³) were used. The geometric parameters of each sample are summarized in Table 1.
The absorbed power was determined thermodynamically based on the water temperature variation, according to previous works [2222 Llave Y, Kambayashi D, Fukuoka M, Sakai N. Power absorption analysis of two-component materials during microwave thawing and heating: Experimental and computer simulation. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2020 Dec;66:102479. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1466856420304252
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,2323 Soltysiak M, Erle U, Malgorzata C. Load curve estimation for microwave ovens: Experiments and electromagnetic modelling. In: MIKON 2008 - 17th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications. Wroclaw, Poland: IEEE; 2008.]. The empty beaker was weighed (), filled with water at 25±1 °C, weighed again (), and inserted into the cavity over the polypropylene table fixed at the oven’s bottom. Polypropylene was selected because it is a nontoxic material with a very low loss tangent (tan δ = 0.0003-0.0004); in other words, the microwave energy dissipated in the table is negligible [2424 Monteiro RL, Carciofi BAM, Marsaioli A, Laurindo JB. How to make a microwave vacuum dryer with turntable. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2015;166:276-84. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877415002848
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. The size details of the experimental apparatus and the specific position of the water load inside the cavity are illustrated in Figure 1. The heating process was carried out until the water reached 35±2 °C to avoid energy losses by evaporation and substantial changes in the dielectric properties of water. The final temperature () was measured using a previously homogenized liquid and a mercury thermometer. The power () was then calculated using Equation 1.
where (4.18 kJ (kgºC)-1 [2525 Bergman TL, Lavine AS, Incropera FP, DeWitt DP. Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer. 7th ed. NY: John Wiley & Sons; 2011.]) and (0.75 kJ (kgºC)-1 [2626 Vries T De. Specific Heat of Pyrex Glass from 25° to 175° C. 1. Ind Eng Chem [Internet]. 1930 Jun 1;22(6):617-8. Available from: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie50246a017
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie5...
]) are the specific heat of water and borosilicate glass, respectively, is the initial temperature, and is the heating time that was specified in the oven control panel. Before the experiments to obtain , the value was estimated experimentally from trial and error for each water load. The experimental tests for were repeated four times for each water load. The International Electrotechnical Commission's Stander suggests using water load to estimate power dissipation in microwave ovens (No - 60705: Household microwave ovens - Methods for measuring performance) [2323 Soltysiak M, Erle U, Malgorzata C. Load curve estimation for microwave ovens: Experiments and electromagnetic modelling. In: MIKON 2008 - 17th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications. Wroclaw, Poland: IEEE; 2008.].
Mathematical modeling
Figure 1 illustrates the computational domain of the electromagnetic model, which includes a detailed description of the cavity, waveguide, polypropylene table, beaker, and water load. The mathematical model assumed that (i) dielectric properties of materials are constant, (ii) energy loss from water to its surrounding is negligible, and (iii) the water remains at rest. The study focused on the effect of load size on microwave power absorption. Therefore, the study did not consider the transient changes caused by natural convection and the effect of temperature on dielectric properties. Only the electromagnetic phenomena following the approach of Zhang and Datta [1010 Zhang H, Datta AK. Microwave power absorption in single - and multiple - item foods. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2003;81(3):257-65. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
] were taken into account. The electromagnetic field distribution in the oven cavity was calculated using waveform of electric field (Equation 2) obtained from Maxwell's equations [1414 Sadiku MNO. Elements of electromagnetics. 5th ed. Porto Alegre: Bookman, Inc.; 2012.].
where is the electric field vector, is the microwaves frequency, is the permeability of free space, is the permittivity of free space, is the complex relative permittivity (), with as the dielectric constant and as the loss factor), and is the gradient operator.
The metallic cavity and waveguide walls can be approached as perfect electric conductors, to which the following boundary condition applies:
where is the unit normal vector.
The tangential component of the electric field is continuous at the interface between two materials air-glass, air-water, and water-glass:
where, and are the electric field in materials 1 and 2, respectively.
The excitation of the microwave oven was modeled through a rectangular waveguide at TE10 mode. In this transverse electric mode, the electric field is perpendicular to the wave direction propagation and shows the half-sine wave distribution, as represented by Equation (5).
where is the electric field strength at the port; a is the longest side of the rectangular waveguide and is the position relative to dimension a, originating at a/2. The power transmitted at the excitation port () can be correlated to the electric field strength ( calculated with equation 8 from experimental data) by Equation (6).
where a and b are the cross-section dimensions of the waveguide, with a > b; and is the intrinsic impedance of the wave in the electric transverse mode [1414 Sadiku MNO. Elements of electromagnetics. 5th ed. Porto Alegre: Bookman, Inc.; 2012.].
The interaction of microwaves with the water converts electromagnetic radiation into thermal energy. The local energy dissipated in the fluid was estimated by the Poynting's theorem (Equation 7), and the total power dissipated () was calculated through the volume integration of the Equation 7 [66 Datta AK, Anatheswaran RC. Handbook of microwave technology for food applications. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.].
Input parameters for the model
The dielectric properties and values of wave-length microwaves () inside each material are summarized in Table 2. The attenuation constant () and the microwave power penetration ( [2727 Tang J. Unlocking Potentials of Microwaves for Food Safety and Quality. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015 Aug 4;80(8). Available from: https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12959
https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...
]) in the water were 23.56 m-1 and 21.22 mm, respectively.
The electric field strength at the excitation port () was estimated according to the Zhang and Datta [1010 Zhang H, Datta AK. Microwave power absorption in single - and multiple - item foods. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2003;81(3):257-65. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
] approach. The procedure consists of comparing the power absorbed by a water load (2 kg) in the microwave oven, determined experimentally (, Equation 1), with the power calculated by the electromagnetic model () using an arbitrary value. The at the excitation port is then estimated using Equation 8.
Numerical solution
The mathematical model was solved using the commercially available finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics® 6.0. The waveform equation of the electric field was solved by the RF Module using the interface Frequency Domain and the GMRES iterative solver (Generalized Minimal Residual Method) with the Geometric Multigrid preconditioner and tolerance of 10-3.
Tetrahedral mesh elements with second-order interpolation function were used for discretization of the computational domain. A study on mesh independence was carried out to define the most appropriate mesh size for this model. The normalized power absorption () was used as a mesh size criterion [88 Zhu J, Kuznetsov AV, Sandeep KP. Mathematical modeling of continuous flow microwave heating of liquids (effects of dielectric properties and design parameters). Int J Therm Sci [Internet]. 2007 Apr;46(4):328-41. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1290072906001153
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,3131 Geedipalli SSR, Rakesh V, Datta AK. Modeling the heating uniformity contributed by a rotating turntable in microwave ovens. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2007 Oct;82(3):359-68. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877407001434
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
].
Figure 2 (a) shows that the values change as the number of elements is increased until converging to a value independent from the number of elements. The results were used to define the element sizes for generating the mesh: 1.5 cm for air domain, and 3 mm for water load. Figure 2 (b) illustrates the differences in mesh size elements of the numerical mesh for the solution of the model. The simulations were performed on an Intel i9-9900x @ 3.5 GHz workstation with 128 GB RAM.
(a) Numerical mesh independence study of mathematical model; (b) Numerical mesh for solution of the model (0.15 kg water load).
Statistical parameters
The absorbed power distribution uniformity was evaluated by the coefficient of variation (), which is the ratio between microwave power density standard deviation () and mean value (). A lower coefficient of variation means a better absorbed microwave power uniformity in the water loads [1212 Zhang Z, Su T, Zhang S. Shape Effect on the Temperature Field during Microwave Heating Process. J Food Qual [Internet]. 2018;2018:1-24. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/201...
,1515 Salvador A, Teleken J, Travassos XL, Avila SL, Carciofi B. Multiphysics Modeling to Assist Microwave Cavity Design for Food Processing. Int J Electr Comput Eng Res [Internet]. 2022 Jun 15;2(2):1-10. Available from: https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233
https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/vi...
].
Where represents the ith mesh element and is the total number of elements in the mesh.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Model validation
The actual power delivered by the microwave oven (, Equation 6, was calculated from electric field strength at the excitation port () obtained experimentally by Equation 8) was 696.2 W, which was around 70% of the rated power of the oven (1000 W). This result is consistent with those of Soltysiak and coauthors [2323 Soltysiak M, Erle U, Malgorzata C. Load curve estimation for microwave ovens: Experiments and electromagnetic modelling. In: MIKON 2008 - 17th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications. Wroclaw, Poland: IEEE; 2008.], who found values between 90% and 74% of rated power for different household ovens.
Figure 3 shows the power dissipated in water loads obtained experimentally () and predicted from the mathematical model (). The dissipated power is sensitive to water load size, presenting values that ranged from 700 W (1.5 kg) to 560 W (0.15 kg), but there was no direct correlation between and . The model shows a good predictive capacity: the relative error was 7.7% in the worst case (1.5 kg water load), and the average error was around 5.2%, considering all cases.
Yi and coauthors [3232 Yi Z, Qiu W, Jiao Y, Row KH, Cheng Y, Jin Y. Calculation of electric field and temperature distribution within a microwave oven with realistic geometric features geometric features using numeric simulations. J Microw Power Electromagn Energy [Internet]. 2021 Jan 2;55(1):3-27. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08327823.2020.1838048
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
] showed that a computational domain with detailed cavity design features, such as magnetron, waveguide, and cavity depressions, improves the predictions of electromagnetic models. They found that dents on cavity walls greatly affect the microwave power dissipated in the sample. The detailed description of the computational domain used in the present model can explain the accuracy of the predictions.
(a) Effect of load size on total microwave power absorption in water. Numerical predictions () and experimental values (); (b) Surface energy flux () as a function of water surface area ().
The surface energy flux is defined as the total power absorbed by the water load divided by the total surface area of the water load; the surface energy flux based on the experimental data is shown in Figure 3b. The energy flux decreases as the surface area increases. Zhang and Datta [1010 Zhang H, Datta AK. Microwave power absorption in single - and multiple - item foods. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2003;81(3):257-65. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
] found a similar trend of surface flux for cylindrical water containers. This trend is attributed to small variations in power absorption when compared to increases in volume and surface area.
Electric field and microwave power density
Figure 4 presents the electric field distribution in the oven cavity with water loads of 1.50, 0.80, and 0.25 kg. Regions of high and low electric fields are obtained into the cavity alternately. Such electric field patterns are characteristic of microwave cavities and lead to a non-uniform heating profile in the water loads (Figure 4) [44 Pitchai K, Chen J, Birla S, Jones D, Gonzalez R, Subbiah J. Multiphysics modeling of microwave heating of a frozen heterogeneous meal rotating on a turntable. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015;80(12):E2803--E2814. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.13136
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.1...
,3333 Chen J, Pitchai K, Birla S, Negahban M, Jones D, Subbiah J. Heat and mass transport during microwave heating of mashed potato in domestic oven-model development, validation, and sensitivity analysis. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2014;79(10):E1991--E2004. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.12636
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.1...
34 Rakesh V, Seo Y, Datta AK, McCarthy KL, McCarthy MJ. Heat transfer during microwave combination heating: Computational modeling and MRI experiments. AIChE J [Internet]. 2010;NA--NA. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/aic.12162
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/aic.12162...
-3535 Shen L, Gao M, Feng S, Ma W, Zhang Y, Liu C, et al. Analysis of heating uniformity considering microwave transmission in stacked bulk of granular materials on a turntable in microwave ovens. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2022 Apr;319:110903. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877421004295
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. Changing the load size changes the resonant-modes of the electromagnetic waves inside the cavity and, consequently, the microwave power dissipated in the sample, as also shown in Figures 4 and 5, respectively.
Electric field distribution, E (V/m), in oven cavities with 1.50, 0.80, and 0.25 kg water load.
The profiles of dissipated power (, Equation 7) in the water loads showed in Figure 5 are the result of resonances that occur when electromagnetic waves penetrate through the sample and a part of the wave reflects from the other end. Transmission and reflection lead to the formation of a series of transmitted and reflected waves and to subsequent constructive/destructive interferences between the waves, resulting in a non-uniform power dissipation [1111 Bhattacharya M, Basak T. A comprehensive analysis on the effect of shape on the microwave heating dynamics of food materials. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2017 Feb;39:247-66. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S146685641630769X
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,3636 Ayappa KG, Davis HT, Crapiste G, Davis EA, Gordon J. Microwave heating: an evaluation of power formulations. Chem Eng Sci [Internet]. 1991;46(4):1005-16. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/000925099185093D
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
37 Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part one: in planes waves. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):6-13. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704582
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
-3838 Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part Two: in a Cavity. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):14-24. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704594
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
].
An energy concentration at the center of the water samples (focusing) was observed, especially for load size below 0.5 kg. When the plane wave is radially incident on the cylinder, the wave transmitted to the water is refracted to the center of the sample, following the well-known Snell's law [3737 Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part one: in planes waves. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):6-13. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704582
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
,3838 Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part Two: in a Cavity. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):14-24. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704594
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. This overheating effect in the center occurs for diameters of approximately one to three times the penetration depth in water (inner diameter ≈ 1 - 3 ) [3939 Wäppling Raaholt B. Influence of food geometry and dielectric properties on heating performance. In: Erle U, Pesheck PS, Lorence M, editors. Development of Packaging and Products for Use in Microwave Ovens. 2nd ed. Elsevier, Woodhead Publishing; 2020.]. The heating was mostly near the surface (not focusing) for large samples, as shown in Figure 5, for the load size of 2 kg and 1.5 kg. According to Ayappa and coauthors [4040 Ayappa KG, Davis HT, Barringer SA, Davis EA. Resonant microwave power absorption in slabs and cylinders. AIChE J [Internet]. 1997 Mar;43(3):615-24. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aic.690430307
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1...
], the intensity of resonances decreases as the sample size increases due to attenuation within the sample, which is consistent with the results found here. Similar dynamics was also found by Su and coauthors [4141 Su T, Zhang W, Zhang Z, Wang X, Zhang S. Energy utilization and heating uniformity of multiple specimens heated in a domestic microwave oven. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2022 Mar;132:35-51. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308521001991
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
] during heating of cylindric samples of different sizes in a microwave cavity.
The coefficient of variation (COV) is an indicator of the effective distribution of microwave power. Figure 6 shows that the COV values decrease as the load size was increased from 0.15 kg to 0.5 kg. However, the COV increases when the mass increases beyond 0.5 kg. A low COV value indicates that the relative standard deviation is small for a certain mean value, which is desirable for heating uniformity [1515 Salvador A, Teleken J, Travassos XL, Avila SL, Carciofi B. Multiphysics Modeling to Assist Microwave Cavity Design for Food Processing. Int J Electr Comput Eng Res [Internet]. 2022 Jun 15;2(2):1-10. Available from: https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233
https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/vi...
]. The highest COV values were observed for the water mass 2 kg and 1.5 kg. In these conditions, the power dissipation occurs near the surface (Figure 5), i.e., when the effects of microwaves resonance inside the samples are low.
Parametric study
A parametric study was performed to quantify the effect of geometrical dimensions of cylindrical samples on the power absorbed by the water load. Table 3 shows 7 sample groups ( = 5, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.15, and 0.075 kg, assuming water density as constant, ρW= 1000 kg m-³ = 1kg dm-3), with increasing radius (r) and decreasing height (h). These samples were placed in the middle of the polypropylene table for numerical analysis and the simulations were performed for a constant input power density (), defined as the power delivered by the magnetron () divided by the water mass ().
The normalized power absorption () of a water volume is different in different geometrical dimensions of the cylindric samples (Figure 7a). Considering the range of values used here (Table 3), a complex relationship between power density () and ratio of the dimensions (2r/h) was found, as shown in Figure 7b. Houšová and Hoke [1313 Houšová J, Hoke K. Microwave heating – the influence of oven and load parameters on the power absorbed in the heated load. Czech J Food Sci [Internet]. 2011 Nov 18;20(No. 3):117-24. Available from: http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cjfs.htm?volume=20&firstPage=117&type=publishedArticle
http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cj...
] compared the experimental power absorbed in 250 mL of water heated in four glass beakers of different dimensions and found no simple dependence between geometrical dimensions and microwave energy. Zhang and coauthors [1212 Zhang Z, Su T, Zhang S. Shape Effect on the Temperature Field during Microwave Heating Process. J Food Qual [Internet]. 2018;2018:1-24. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/201...
] simulated microwave heating of potato cylinders with constant volume and observed fluctuation in absorbed power as the radius was increased and the height was decreased, as also observed in the present study. Changes in the relationship between sample radius and height led to modification of the electromagnetic wave resonant modes inside the oven cavity, which can explain the complex dynamics observed in Figures 7a, 7b.
The relationship between COV and water load (different dimensions) is shown in Figure 7c. A trend of increasing COV with mass was revealed (similar dynamics as that shown in Figure 6), which is consistent with the findings of Zhangand coauthors [1212 Zhang Z, Su T, Zhang S. Shape Effect on the Temperature Field during Microwave Heating Process. J Food Qual [Internet]. 2018;2018:1-24. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/201...
] and Su and coauthors [4141 Su T, Zhang W, Zhang Z, Wang X, Zhang S. Energy utilization and heating uniformity of multiple specimens heated in a domestic microwave oven. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2022 Mar;132:35-51. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308521001991
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve...
]. However, no correlation was found between COV and ratio of geometrical dimensions of the sample (2r/h) (data not shown).
Effect of mass (a) and aspect ratio (b) on power absorption in water. Effect of mass (c) on COV of microwave power density.
CONCLUSION
Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism were solved for a domestic microwave oven to evaluate the power dissipated in water samples. The model described the experimental data accurately and showed the complex dynamics of the electric fields inside the cavity and water (cylindrical shape). Based on numerical results, the distribution of the microwave power density in the water changed with changes in the sample size. The heating uniformity was lower for greater water masses. Furthermore, the amounts of absorbed power also differed for equal mass samples with different characteristic dimensions: radius and height. The modification of the resonance mode of electromagnetic waves inside the oven may explain the dynamics observed. These results indicate that the heating patterns of the microwave oven are the result of combined characteristics of shape and size, as well as the oven cavity.
REFERENCES
-
1Taşkıran M, Olum E, Candoğan K. Changes in chicken meat proteins during microwave and electric oven cooking. J Food Process Preserv [Internet]. 2020 Feb 17;44(2). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpp.14324
» https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpp.14324 -
2Teleken JT, Quadri MB, Oliveira APN, Laurindo JB, Datta AK, Carciofi BAM. Mechanistic understanding of microwave-vacuum drying of non-deformable porous media. Dry Technol [Internet]. 2020 Feb 19;1-18. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07373937.2020.1728303
» https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07373937.2020.1728303 -
3Teleken J, Porciúncula BDA, Teleken JG, Carciofi BAM. Drying of foods under intermittent supply of microwave energy: proposal for a mathematical model. Acta Sci Technol [Internet]. 2021 Jun 14;43:e51037. Available from: https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciTechnol/article/view/51037
» https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciTechnol/article/view/51037 -
4Pitchai K, Chen J, Birla S, Jones D, Gonzalez R, Subbiah J. Multiphysics modeling of microwave heating of a frozen heterogeneous meal rotating on a turntable. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015;80(12):E2803--E2814. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.13136
» http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.13136 -
5Tang J, Hong Y-K, Inanoglu S, Liu F. Microwave pasteurization for ready-to-eat meals. Curr Opin Food Sci [Internet]. 2018 Oct;23:133-41. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2214799318300201
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2214799318300201 -
6Datta AK, Anatheswaran RC. Handbook of microwave technology for food applications. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.
-
7Gao X, Liu X, Yan P, Li X, Li H. Numerical analysis and optimization of the microwave inductive heating performance of water film. Int J Heat Mass Transf [Internet]. 2019 Aug;139:17-30. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0017931019301978
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0017931019301978 -
8Zhu J, Kuznetsov AV, Sandeep KP. Mathematical modeling of continuous flow microwave heating of liquids (effects of dielectric properties and design parameters). Int J Therm Sci [Internet]. 2007 Apr;46(4):328-41. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1290072906001153
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1290072906001153 -
9Resurreccion FP, Luan D, Tang J, Liu F, Tang Z, Pedrow PD, et al. Effect of changes in microwave frequency on heating patterns of foods in a microwave assisted thermal sterilization system. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2015 Apr;150:99-105. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877414004208
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877414004208 -
10Zhang H, Datta AK. Microwave power absorption in single - and multiple - item foods. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2003;81(3):257-65. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308503703800 -
11Bhattacharya M, Basak T. A comprehensive analysis on the effect of shape on the microwave heating dynamics of food materials. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2017 Feb;39:247-66. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S146685641630769X
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S146685641630769X -
12Zhang Z, Su T, Zhang S. Shape Effect on the Temperature Field during Microwave Heating Process. J Food Qual [Internet]. 2018;2018:1-24. Available from: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875/
» https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2018/9169875 -
13Houšová J, Hoke K. Microwave heating – the influence of oven and load parameters on the power absorbed in the heated load. Czech J Food Sci [Internet]. 2011 Nov 18;20(No. 3):117-24. Available from: http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cjfs.htm?volume=20&firstPage=117&type=publishedArticle
» http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/web/cjfs.htm?volume=20&firstPage=117&type=publishedArticle -
14Sadiku MNO. Elements of electromagnetics. 5th ed. Porto Alegre: Bookman, Inc.; 2012.
-
15Salvador A, Teleken J, Travassos XL, Avila SL, Carciofi B. Multiphysics Modeling to Assist Microwave Cavity Design for Food Processing. Int J Electr Comput Eng Res [Internet]. 2022 Jun 15;2(2):1-10. Available from: https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233
» https://www.ijecer.org/ijecer/article/view/233 -
16Zhang Y, Yang H, Yan B, Zhu H, Gao W, Zhao J, et al. Continuous flow microwave system with helical tubes for liquid food heating. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2021 Apr;294:110409. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877420304957
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877420304957 -
17Gulati T, Zhu H, Datta AK, Huang K. Microwave drying of spheres: Coupled electromagnetics-multiphase transport modeling with experimentation. Part II: Model validation and simulation results. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2015;96:326-37. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308515001030
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308515001030 -
18Datta A, Nicolaï B, Vitrac O, Verboven P, Erdogdu F, Marra F, et al. Computer-aided food engineering. Nat Food [Internet]. 2022 Nov 3;3(11):894-904. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00617-5
» https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00617-5 -
19Chen F, Warning AD, Datta AK, Chen X. Susceptors in microwave cavity heating: Modeling and experimentation with a frozen pie. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2017 Feb;195:191-205. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877416303417
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877416303417 -
20Jung H, Lee MG, Yoon WB. Effects of Container Design on the Temperature and Moisture Content Distribution in Pork Patties during Microwave Heating: Experiment and Numerical Simulation. Processes [Internet]. 2022 Nov 13;10(11):2382. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/11/2382
» https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/11/2382 -
21da Costa FO, Alvarenga TF, de Mesquita TVC, Petri Júnior I. Hybrid drying of pulped arabica coffee cherry beans ( Coffea arabica L. cv. Catuai ) using a hexagonal microwave dryer designed by numerical simulations. J Food Process Eng [Internet]. 2021 May 23;44(5). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpe.13666
» https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfpe.13666 -
22Llave Y, Kambayashi D, Fukuoka M, Sakai N. Power absorption analysis of two-component materials during microwave thawing and heating: Experimental and computer simulation. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2020 Dec;66:102479. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1466856420304252
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1466856420304252 -
23Soltysiak M, Erle U, Malgorzata C. Load curve estimation for microwave ovens: Experiments and electromagnetic modelling. In: MIKON 2008 - 17th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications. Wroclaw, Poland: IEEE; 2008.
-
24Monteiro RL, Carciofi BAM, Marsaioli A, Laurindo JB. How to make a microwave vacuum dryer with turntable. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2015;166:276-84. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877415002848
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877415002848 -
25Bergman TL, Lavine AS, Incropera FP, DeWitt DP. Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer. 7th ed. NY: John Wiley & Sons; 2011.
-
26Vries T De. Specific Heat of Pyrex Glass from 25° to 175° C. 1. Ind Eng Chem [Internet]. 1930 Jun 1;22(6):617-8. Available from: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie50246a017
» https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie50246a017 -
27Tang J. Unlocking Potentials of Microwaves for Food Safety and Quality. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2015 Aug 4;80(8). Available from: https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12959
» https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12959 -
28Gezahegn YA, Tang J, Sablani SS, Pedrow PD, Hong Y-K, Lin H, et al. Dielectric properties of water relevant to microwave assisted thermal pasteurization and sterilization of packaged foods. Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol [Internet]. 2021 Dec;74:102837. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1466856421002381
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1466856421002381 -
29Chaki TK, Khastgir DK. Effect of Frequency and Temperature on Dielectric Properties of Polypropylene at X-Band Microwave Region. J Elastomers Plast [Internet]. 1990 Jan 26;22(1):58-71. Available from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ 10.1177/009524439002200107
» http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ 10.1177/009524439002200107 -
30Meredith R. Engineers’ Handbook of Industrial Microwave Heating. London/UK: The Institution of Electrial Engineers; 1998.
-
31Geedipalli SSR, Rakesh V, Datta AK. Modeling the heating uniformity contributed by a rotating turntable in microwave ovens. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2007 Oct;82(3):359-68. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877407001434
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877407001434 -
32Yi Z, Qiu W, Jiao Y, Row KH, Cheng Y, Jin Y. Calculation of electric field and temperature distribution within a microwave oven with realistic geometric features geometric features using numeric simulations. J Microw Power Electromagn Energy [Internet]. 2021 Jan 2;55(1):3-27. Available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08327823.2020.1838048
» https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08327823.2020.1838048 -
33Chen J, Pitchai K, Birla S, Negahban M, Jones D, Subbiah J. Heat and mass transport during microwave heating of mashed potato in domestic oven-model development, validation, and sensitivity analysis. J Food Sci [Internet]. 2014;79(10):E1991--E2004. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.12636
» http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1750-3841.12636 -
34Rakesh V, Seo Y, Datta AK, McCarthy KL, McCarthy MJ. Heat transfer during microwave combination heating: Computational modeling and MRI experiments. AIChE J [Internet]. 2010;NA--NA. Available from: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/aic.12162
» http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/aic.12162 -
35Shen L, Gao M, Feng S, Ma W, Zhang Y, Liu C, et al. Analysis of heating uniformity considering microwave transmission in stacked bulk of granular materials on a turntable in microwave ovens. J Food Eng [Internet]. 2022 Apr;319:110903. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877421004295
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0260877421004295 -
36Ayappa KG, Davis HT, Crapiste G, Davis EA, Gordon J. Microwave heating: an evaluation of power formulations. Chem Eng Sci [Internet]. 1991;46(4):1005-16. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/000925099185093D
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/000925099185093D -
37Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part one: in planes waves. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):6-13. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704582
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704582 -
38Zhang H, Datta AK. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods: Part Two: in a Cavity. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2005 Mar;83(1):14-24. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704594
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308505704594 -
39Wäppling Raaholt B. Influence of food geometry and dielectric properties on heating performance. In: Erle U, Pesheck PS, Lorence M, editors. Development of Packaging and Products for Use in Microwave Ovens. 2nd ed. Elsevier, Woodhead Publishing; 2020.
-
40Ayappa KG, Davis HT, Barringer SA, Davis EA. Resonant microwave power absorption in slabs and cylinders. AIChE J [Internet]. 1997 Mar;43(3):615-24. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aic.690430307
» https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aic.690430307 -
41Su T, Zhang W, Zhang Z, Wang X, Zhang S. Energy utilization and heating uniformity of multiple specimens heated in a domestic microwave oven. Food Bioprod Process [Internet]. 2022 Mar;132:35-51. Available from: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308521001991
» https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960308521001991
Edited by
Editor-in-Chief:
Associate Editor:
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
15 July 2024 -
Date of issue
2024
History
-
Received
03 Aug 2022 -
Accepted
13 May 2024