Computer Simulations of Microwave Heating with Coupled Electromagnetic, Thermal, and Kinetic Phenomena

─ A new functionality for the hybrid electromagnetic – thermodynamic simulations of microwave heating scenarios in the time domain is presented. The new functionality consists in the modelling of the heated load movement throughout the simulated process. Various types of the movement trajectories have been allowed for, including load rotation and load translation along user-defined piecewise-linear paths. Key aspects of this novel approach are addressed and justified from the computational electromagnetics perspective. Multiphysics simulation results are presented for a fictious and a commercially available microwave oven. Index Terms ─ Coupled electromagnetic and thermal simulation, FDTD methods, hybrid modelling, microwave heating, multiphysics modelling,