Microwave Heating of Porous Solids (1998-2001)

In this work the initiation of high-temperature reactions at low temperatures in combustible materials, including powders, solid fuels and explosives, by means of laser radiation was investigated. This is known as combustion synthesis or self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS).

The absorption of microwave energy was modelled as the product of an exponential temperature function with a function that decays exponentially with distance. The latter describes the penetration of the material by the microwaves and represents the simplest possible spatial dependence which has some accepted physical basis but which enables the heating aspects of the problem to be isolated from the electric and magnetic fields.

Collaborators

Publications

1. M.I. Nelson, G.C. Wake, X.D. Chen, and E. Balakrishnan. The multiplicity of steady-state solutions arising from microwave heating: I Infinite biot number and small penetration depth. ANZIAM Journal, 43(1): 87-103, 2001.
2. E. Balakrishnan, M.I. Nelson and X.D. Chen. Microwave assisted ignition to achieve combustion synthesis. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences, 5(3): 151-164, September 2001.