Numerical Models for the Sintering of Ceramics in a Multi-Mode Cavity

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe present two distinct approaches to the numerical determination of electromagnetic field intensities which must be known before the sintering of ceramics can be modelled in a multi-mode microwave cavity. In the first, a Finite Element Method, we employ edge elements to discretise Maxwell's Equations and apply the conjugate gradient algorithm to solve the resulting system of linear algebraic equations at each time step. The second, which is based on the Method of Lines, is a variant of the Finite Difference Time Domain technique and is used to transform Maxwell's Equations into a set of time-dependent ordinary differential equations. These methods are compared with the help of three examples: a small tray of mashed potatoes placed inside a cavity, a standard waveguide partially filled with a ceramic, and a cavity inhomogeneously loaded with the same material. The good agreements which we have found give us confidence in the soundness of either approach for use in numerical simulation work.