Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 5 (2001), Issue 3, Pages 151-164
doi:10.1155/S1173912601000128

Microwave assisted ignition to achieve combustion synthesis

E. Balakrishnan,1 M. I. Nelson,2 and X. D. Chen3

1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
2School of Mathematics and Statistics, University College, UNSW, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
3Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Copyright © 2001 E. Balakrishnan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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.