Summary of the Project Summary of the ProjectFinite Diference Time Domain (FDTD) method has proven to be effective in modeling problems in high frequency electromagnetics. The space-discrete nature of the method allows the user to accommodate complicated geometries, inhomogeneous and arbitrarily shaped material. Due to the time domain approach, FDTD permits to naturally watch the fields excited by a sinusoidal wave. With the use of pulse excitation and Fourier transform, the method generates the phase and amplitude of the reflection factor over a frequency band with no computational overhead compared to a single frequency analysis. The use of explicit integration in space and time eliminates the need for storing and inversion of large matrices (inavoidable in the Finite Element techniques) and facilitate computational efficiency.
Despite many appealing advantages, the examples of the efficient use of the FDTD analysis in microwave power engineering have become known just recently. However, the typical problems of industrial microwave heating involving processed material moving within the cavity has never been addressed.
The algorithm presented in this talk appears to be the original computational approach dealing with this important practical problem. The suggested scheme is a simple, but concise implementation of the procedure calculating the microwave power dissipated in the materials in scenarios with the changing geometry. The algorithm based on the full-wave 3D conformal FDTD software (QuickWave-3D) manipulates with the simulator's output matrices to obtain the power averaged over the all positions of the processed material. Implemented in MATLAB in PC-UNIX environment, the algorithms computer simulations are also discussed.
The present web page is prepared on the
basis of the material presented at the Department Mathematical Colloquium,
July 26, 2001