The electromagnetic field modelling as a tool in the microwave heating feasibility studies

The electromagnetic field modeling of a loaded microwaveapplicator can help in choosing the proper conditions tosuccessfully organize feasibility studies, allowing savings oftime and money, which are usually wasted during “blindfold”tests. As a matter of fact, when microwave heating of materialsis performed, the pronounced nonhomogeneity of the fielddistribution in multi-mode applicators can produce contradictoryexperimental results, leading to erroneous conclusions regardingthe main variables controlling the process. This is particularlytrue considering the microwave heat treatment of low thermalconductivity materials. Two different applications in the ceramicfield, comparing the results of “blindfold” and modeling-aidedexperimental conditions, are presented: de-binding of technicalceramics and asbestos inertization and/or vitrification. Thanksto a better knowledge of the electromagnetic field in theapplicators, it has been possible to succeed in applicationsthat, at a first glance, did not seem promising at all.