Role of metallic, ceramic and composite plates on microwave processing of composite dielectric materials

A detailed theoretical analysis has been carried out to study efficient heating of one-dimensional composite dielectric food slabs attached with metallic or ceramic or composite plate due to microwaves. A detailed spatial distribution on power and temperature of beef-oil assembly have been analyzed for metallic and ceramic supports. It has been found that metallic support does enhance the heating rate of beef samples (high dielectric loss). However, the regime of beef-oil layer attached with metallic support corresponds to small power absorption and hence the role of metallic-ceramic composite plate has been investigated. It has been found that metallic-ceramic composite plate sometime gives higher heating rate than that with metallic or ceramic plate especially for smaller oil thicknesses. The efficient processing of composite dielectric food materials with metallic or metallic-ceramic composite plate have been further illustrated with two factors such as heating rate and degree of thermal runaway. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.