Research on Mode Stirred Microwave Thawing Based on Implicit Function Method

Abstract

Microwave energy is widely used in the food industry as a clean and efficient source of energy. Methods of improving the effect of microwaving during the thawing of foodstuffs include the addition of turntables or mode stirrers. The addition of a mode stirrer to the microwave cavity can significantly improve the thawing effect, but there has been little detailed research into the effect of mode stirrers on the thawing process. Therefore, a mode stirrer is set up in the thawing cavity and an ice layer is added to the material in this paper, a more detailed multi-physics field calculation model is developed to study the effect of different parameters of the mode stirrer on the uniformity and efficiency of thawing. The implicit function method is used in the calculation process to solve the problems of large calculation volume and difficult convergence of the mode stirrer thawing simulation. The results of the calculations show that the thawing uniformity tends to decrease and then increase for the adopted cavity size, the height of the mode stirrer has a significant effect on the thawing effect, its speed variation also affects the thawing efficiency but not as much as the height variation, and its length lengthening within a certain range will lead to better thawing uniformity but too long will lead to a decrease in thawing efficiency.