THE STEADY-STATE TEMPERATURE AS A FUNCTION OF CASKET GEOMETRY FOR MICROWAVE-HEATED REFRACTORY CASKETS

This study demonstrates experimentally that for a fixed microwave inpu t power, the steady-state temperature for microwave ''caskets'' (speci men enclosures) can vary significantly as the casket geometry changes. Also, the steady-state casket temperatures are very similar for caske ts with and without an included specimen, as long as the specimen's vo lume and mass are small com pared to the casket's volume and mass. In addition to the experimental work, a simple model is presented that de scribes the variation in steady-state temperature as a function of cas ket geometry. The model also describes how the steady-state casket tem perature scales with microwave input power level. For the single-mode microwave cavity operated at 2.45 GHz that is used in this study, the steady-state casket temperature at 600 Watts of input power ranged fro m 1112 degrees C to 1519 degrees C as the casket geometry changed for caskets composed of porous zirconia cylinders with aluminosilicate end plates.