Microwave Field Distribution Uniformity Coefficient in the Grain Mass

Abstract

The article considers the microwave electromagnetic fields as one of the options for improving the thermal drying of grain. Their application is limited by the high unevenness of the field propagation in the layer of the processed material. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in justifying the uniformity of distribution of microwave field in the layer of the processed grain. (Materials and methods) The article presents the scheme of computer models of microwave processing zones and waveguides, properties of materials for conducting a numerical experiment. (Results and discussion) A numerical experiment was performed to determine the uniformity coefficient of propagation of the microwave field in a layer of grain material. The article presents the dependencies. (Conclusions) It was found that the results of modeling the distribution of the electromagnetic field in the zone of microwave convective influence of the installation containing two sources of microwave power for processing the grain layer indicate a high level of its unevenness in the volume of the product pipeline. To assess the uniformity of the distribution of the electromagnetic field in the working area of a laboratory installation, there used a coefficient that is the ratio of the average value of the intensity in the zone of microwave convective action to its average value of the wave strength passing through the output of the waveguide. The values of the uniformity coefficient in the considered implementation options are in the range of 0.1757-0.4946 for a dense layer of wheat. To ensure a sufficient level of uniformity of the electromagnetic wave distribution in the volume of the microwave convective zone, the uniformity coefficient must be higher than 0.37. The article presents the dependence of the uniformity coefficient of the electromagnetic field on the humidity of the processed material by a third-degree polynomial with a coefficient of determination higher than 0.98.