Simulation of Microwave, Conventional and Hybrid Ovens Using a New Thermal Modeling Technique

This paper presents an efficient simulation tool and results for conventional, microwave and combined heating. A new thermal modeling technique for the simulation of conductive and radiant heat transfer is presented. The conductive heat transfer is modeled by a finite difference algorithm. A finite difference scheme is not applicable for the radiant heat transfer, as radiation from a material surface is not bounded to the immediate vicinity as is the conductive transfer. Therefore, ray optical methods are used. Rays connecting mutually visible surfaces are obtained by a new fast method. Some simplifications which are necessary to achieve fast computing are also included. The algorithms are combined with an electromagnetic FDTD program. Simulations are presented for an oven heated conventionally, with microwaves, or by a combination of both.