TRAY-SHAPE EFFECT IN A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF MICROWAVE-HEATING

For microwave heating of lossy dielectric in a metal tray, the shape o f the tray is shown to play an important role in the way power is diss ipated. Wire-grid cubic cells loaded with RC circuits are used to mode l dielectric-filled square and circular trays, and a method-of-moments technique is used to solve for the currents, under excitation from a nearby antenna. The difference in power distribution between the two s hapes is examined using three values of loss tangent. The study, carri ed out under two different excitations, indicates that circular trays produce more uniform distributions of dissipated power.