Study of Electromagnetic Properties of T
Study of Electromagnetic Properties of T
Study of Electromagnetic Properties of T
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Study of Electromagnetic Properties of the Agricultural Products
Darie SOPRONI, Teodor MAGHIAR, Carmen MOLNAR, Ioan HATHAZI,
Livia BANDICI, Mircea ARION and Andrei KRAUSZ
University of Oradea, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
1, Universităţii Street, 410087, Oradea, România,
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Tel.: +40 259 408272
Abstract: During microwave or high frequency heating, [4] has suggested that by combining higher frequencies
many material properties affect the heating performance. with lower frequencies it would be possible to get surface
Among the most significant are the electromagnetic browning.
properties, especially the dielectric properties of the food. A propagating electromagnetic wave has two
In addition to these properties, geometry, packaging, and components, an electric field (E; unit V/m) and a magnetic
the microwave oven itself affect the heating. This field (H; unit A/m). They are vectors and always
literature review focuses on multicomponent food perpendicular to each other (Fig. 2).
products and reheating of prepared foods, but some basic In free space the propagating wave has a velocity (c0) of
concepts and mechanisms of microwave heating are also about 3.0 x 108 m/s, and this is the maximum speed at
introduced. which energy can travel. Frequency (f) and wavelength (λ)
are linked with the equation:
Keywords: Electromagnetic polarisation, Dielectric c = λ⋅ f (1)
properties, agricultural products, Microwave modelling.
I. INTRODUCTION
130
II. THE ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF B. Dielectric properties
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
The dielectric properties describe how materials interact
A. Polarisation of dielectrics with electromagnetic radiation. Natural biological materials
absorb only the electric part of the electromagnetic field.
When two opposite charges are separated by a distance, Agricultural materials are practically non-magnetic, as they
they constitute an electric dipole. Molecules with non-zero contain only trace amounts of magnetic material, such as
permanent electric dipole moments are called polar iron and cobalt [6], [7].
molecules. Nonpolar molecules may obtain a dipole The absolute permittivity in vacuum is εo and it is
moment in an electric field as a result of the distortion of determined by the speed of light (c0) and the magnetic
their electronic distributions and nuclear positions. The constant (µ0), which are linked by the equation:
relative permittivity ε is a measure of the polarising effect c02µ 0ε 0 = 1 (3)
from an external field, that is, how easily the medium is
polarised. Polarisation (P) can be described by an equation: The numerical value for ε0 is 8.854x10-12 F/m. In other
media (solid, liquid and gaseous), the permittivity has
P = ε 0 E (ε − 1) (2)
higher values and it is usually expressed relative to the
value in vacuum [8]:
Alberty [1] lists three types of polarisation: electronic, ε abs = ε r ε 0 (4)
atomic, and orientation polarisation. An important
mechanism at microwave frequencies is also ion where εabs is absolute permittivity of a material and εr is
conductivity (ionic loss or polarisation), where hydrated relative permittivity of a material. It is often recommended
ions try to move in the direction of the electrical field and that the subscript r, which stands for relative, be eliminated.
transfer energy by this movement. This is strongly The high frequency and microwave fields are sinusoidal
temperature dependent [9]. time-dependent (time-harmonic) and common practice is to
Electronic polarisation comes from the field-induced use complex notation to express the time dependence [8].
displacement of the electrons with respect to the nucleus. Therefore, the permittivity will also be a complex quantity
This polarisation occurs in all substances. In atomic with real and imaginary components [10]. The equation for
polarisation, the atoms can be moved in crystals or complex permittivity is:
molecules. Electronic polarisation, together with atomic ε = ε' − jε" (5)
polarisation, gives most dry solids a permittivity of the where ε is relative complex permittivity, ε' is relative real
order of e' < 10. When only these two mechanisms are permittivity (dielectric constant), ε" is the relative dielectric
present, the material is almost lossless at microwave loss factor, and j is the imaginary component.
frequencies. Atomic polarisation, which is also called The real component of the permittivity, known also as
vibration polarisation, is closely related to electronic the dielectric constant (ε'), is related to the capacitance of a
polarisation but, because of the much greater mass to be substance and its ability to store electrical energy. The
moved, the resonant frequencies of atomic polarisation are imaginary component, the dielectric loss factor (ε"), is
lower. Atomic polarisation is found in the infrared band related to various absorption mechanisms of energy
while electronic polarisation is found in the optical band. dissipation and is always positive and usually much smaller
They both are practically independent of the temperature than ε'. It is approximately proportional to the attenuation
[1], [8]. of a propagating wave. The substance is lossless if ε" = 0
Many molecules have a permanent dipole moment, and [7], [8]. The ratio of ε" to ε' is called the (dielectric) loss
orientation (dipolar) polarisation is due to the partial
tangent (tan δ).
alignment of these dipoles. Water is a dipole and is usually The rate of heating can be expressed by the power
a major component in biological materials. In a microwave equation:
or high frequency field, the dipoles try to follow the rapidly 2
changing field. The dipoles are not completely oriented due Pv = 2πfε 0ε" E (6)
to the disorienting effect of thermal motion. This where Pv is energy developed per unit volume (W/m ), f is 3
131
a perpendicularly impinging, forward propagating plane many experiments. Mathematical modelling can reduce the
electromagnetic wave has decayed by 1/e from the surface timeconsuming experimental part. If models can
value (1/e is about 37 %). If tan δ is smaller than about 0.5, successfully simulate the heating behaviour of food in a
the following simplified formula gives 97% to 100% of the microwave oven, the effects of composition, geometry, and
correct value [10]: packaging changes can be tested without the cost of sample
preparation and testing. Maxwell’s equations can be used
λ 0 ε'
dp = (7) to calculate the exact electric and magnetic field
2πε" configuration within the product if the configuration of
where λ0 is the free space wavelength. microwave oven cavity, dielectric properties, and product
The absorbed power density near the surface of an geometry are exactly known. With the knowledge of
infinite inhomogeneous slab is, accordingly, approximately physical and thermal properties of the product, and the
proportional to ε" when ε' does not vary very much. If tan δ cooling conditions, the heating pattern could be
is greater than 0.5, the more exact formula should be used determined. However, the exact solution of Maxwell’s
[10]: equations could only be obtained in special cases [2].
Generally, a numerical method has to be used.
λ0 ε"
2 The alternative solution is to use modelling; the technique
dp = ε' 1 + − 1 (8)
breaks down the oven cavity and food geometries into
2π 2 ε'
small cells and Maxwell’s equations can be approximated
and solved for each cell [2]. Earlier the computational
Transmission properties, which are related to the capacity has limited modelling, and still today a complete
dielectric and thermal properties of the medium, determine optimisation requires a vast number of simulations. There
the distribution of energy [7]. Since ε' decreases the speed are many numerical methods but the most common of them
of propagation, the wavelength in the dielectric medium is are the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, the
shorter than in free space. This change in wavelength leads finite element time domain (FETD) method, and the
to reflection at the interface between two media with moment method (MM). To provide the temperature
different ε' [8]. The reflection phenomena can be analysed distribution within the product these models can be
in terms of characteristic wave impedances. Impedance is combined with thermal simulations. If food has a high
the ratio between the electric (E) and the magnetic (H) field permittivity, this may cause stability problems and poor
strengths [9]: accuracy especially when using the finite element (FEM) or
η (9) moment methods. Today, the FDTD method seems to be
η= 0 more promising than FEM, especially when comparing the
ε
where η0 is the wave impedance of free space time needed for simulations.
(approximately 377 W).
The reflection and transmission at a plane boundary are
primarily related to square root of permittivity, and the IV. THE FIELD WITHIN THE OVEN CAVITY
main determining factor for the magnitude of reflection is
More generally, a typical foodstuff in a microwave
from the real permittivity (ε') of the material. Errors due to
oven is exposed to the electromagnetic field set up within
neglecting ε” are less than 5 % for practically all
the oven cavity by the magnetron. These field patterns are
agricultural products [2].
very difficult to calculate exactly especially in an oven with
Characteristic impedance is important when different
a mode-stirring device. Inside such a mode-stirred oven a
materials are heated simultaneously. The characteristic
rotating metal vane scatters the electromagnetic wave
impedance for the average food is about 50 W. The change
resulting in field patterns which are difficult if not
in characteristic impedances (the dielectric mismatch) at
impossible to calculate exactly However, the effect of the
the food surface results in reflection of about 50% of the
scattering is to produce electric fields which are, when
microwave power falling on the surface. Most of this
averaged over time, are spatially fairly uniform. The
energy is reflected back to the seeds via the metal cavity
scattering, although significantly changing the original
walls.
field patterns, does not attenuate the field and so the power
transmitted into the oven cavity remains the same.
Consequently, we can make the approximation that
III. MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF
exposing the food to the changing field over the course of
MICROWAVE HEATING
heating (typically several minutes) is equivalent to
exposing the top and sides of the foodstuff to a relatively
Some installations are synchronized with the network
uniform field imparting the overall same power to the
voltage but these are effected by the functional
foodstuff as a whole. In contrast in an oven (such as a
perturbations in the presence of the harmonics of the
turntable oven) with no mode-stirring device, and with a
voltage (some commands at the electrical engines, the
waveguide feed, standing wave patterns can arise in the
invertors command, etc).
electromagnetic field . Further simulations and experiments
Design of food products for microwave heating requires
into the nature of the field patterns have been conducted in
knowledge on fundamentals of microwave heating and
132
which simulations of a cuboid sample of food exposed to method has great potential in optimisation of agricultural
an electromagnetic field fed directly from a waveguide products and heating appliances.
onto the load are reported. These calculations indicate that
inside the waveguide an input plane is excited in a TE10
mode and the amplitudes of the incident waves onto the REFERENCES
cereals E y are given by
inc
V. CONCLUSIONS
133