Microwave assisted ignition to achieve combustion synthesis

Abstract

The use of microwave heating to initiate combustion synthesis has been increasingly investigated in recent years because of its advantages over traditional methods. A simple mathematical model is used to model these experiments. 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 represents the temperature-dependent absorption of the microwaves whereas the latter describes the penetration of the material by the microwaves. Combustion kinetics are modelled as a first-order Arrhenius reaction. Copyright© 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.