Thermal simulation of microwave kiln based on multiphysics

Abstract

A microwave kiln, made of silicon carbide and ceramic fiber, commonly employs in a household glassware production process. In this process, when the kiln was in a microwave oven, a microwave transmitted to the kiln generating a high temperature to fuse the glass inside. This article presents a thermal simulation to investigate the temperature inside the kiln based on multiphysics consisting of a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The multiphysics results revealed the temperature inside the kiln in a transient state, consistent with the experimental results. As expected, the temperature increased with the increasing time of the process. Significantly, the silicon carbide had higher temperatures than the ceramic fiber; therefore, silicon carbide is a crucial material for generating heat inside the kiln. In addition, the temperature-increasing rate (TIR) inside the kiln depended on the kiln's thickness (Th). As a result, the thinner Th provided better TIR. The research findings can be applied to develop a high-efficacy household glassware production process.