Microwave ignition to achieve combustion synthesis
by
Easwaran Balakrishnan
Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman
Coauthors: X.D. Chen (University of Auckland), M.I. Nelson (University of Leeds, England)

The use of microwave heating to initiate combustion synthesis of ceramic materials has been investigated experimentally in recent years because of its advantages over traditional methods. A simple mathematical model is used to model these experiments in which the microwave power absorption term is modelled as the product of an Arrhenius reaction term with a function that decays exponentially with distance. The former models the temperature-dependent absorption of the microwaves whereas the latter describes the penetration of the material by the microwaves.

Keywords: ceramics, combustion, microwaves, self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS).

http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~amt5man/

Date received: August 25, 1999