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Nanostructured reactive foils have attracted a great deal of interest recently due to their unique mechanical and thermal properties. Reactive thin foil can be used as a controllable, localized heating source for joining applications, which enable soldering and brazing of materials at room temperature. In this paper, multiphysics-based numerical simulations were performed to simulate reactive thin foils. The conductive heat transfer equation and mass diffusion equations were solved for 1D, 2D, and 3D cases. 1D simulation examined the effect of the chemical reaction rate on the flame speed; 2D simulation gave the detailed temperature and composition distribution in the bi-layers; and 3D simulation demonstrated the localized heating effect of reactive thin foils on a silicon wafer substrate.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of inverter supply on the iron loss characteristics of slip-ring induction machines. Pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage supply on the stator side, as well as a doubly fed operation mode with rotor-sided inverter, are investigated.

An inverter fed machine model is coupled to previously developed eddy current and hysteresis loss models. The eddy current model is based on a finite element method and considers the three-dimensional (3D) eddy current distribution in the steel sheets. The hysteresis losses are computed by a static Preisach vector model.

It is found that under stator-sided inverter supply the eddy current losses do significantly increase when compared to sinusoidal feeding, contributing to a total loss increase of 10-15 percent. In doubly fed operation, the additional losses are generally lower owing to the winding topology of the studied machine.

The analyses presented are restricted to single PWM pattern only. The influences of different PWM parameters remain to be investigated in future.

Regarding practical applications, the reduced additional losses in doubly fed configurations can be considered as a further advantage when competing against other topologies available.

The 3D eddy current model is applied for the first time to quantify the effects of inverter supply. Furthermore, the presented studies on the iron losses in doubly fed operation are original and of practical value for designers and researches.

Acoustic noise is a crucial performance index in the design of electrical machines. Due to the challenges associated with modelling a complete motor, the stator is often used to estimate the sound power in the prototyping stage. While this approach greatly reduces lengthy simulations, the actual sound power of the motor may not be known. But, from the acoustic noise standpoint, not much is known about the correlation between the stator and complete motor. This paper, therefore, aims to use the sound pressure levels of the stator and the full motor to investigate the existence of correlations in the interior permanent magnet synchronous motor.

A multiphysics simulation framework is proposed to evaluate the sound pressure levels of multiple motor geometries in a given design space. Then, a statistical analysis is performed on the calculated sound pressure levels of each geometry over a selected speed range to compare the correlation strength between the stator and the full model.

It was established that the stator and the complete motor model are moderately correlated. As such, a reliance on the stator sound power for design and optimization routines could yield inaccurate results.

The main contribution involves the use of statistical tools to study the relationship between sound pressure levels associated with the stator geometry and the complete electric motor by increasing the motor sample size to capture subtle acoustic correlation trends in the design space of the interior permanent magnet synchronous motor.

The paper introduces and illustrates the use of numerical models for the simulation of electromagnetic and thermal processes in an absorbing ceramic layer (susceptor) of a new millimeter-wave (MMW) heat exchanger. The purpose of this study is to better understand interaction between the MMW field and the susceptor, choose the composition of the ceramic material and help design the physical prototype of the device.

A simplified version of the heat exchanger comprises a rectangular block of an aluminum nitride (AlN) doped with molybdenum (Mo) that is backed by a thin metal plate and irradiated by a plane MMW. The coupled electromagnetic-thermal problem is solved by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique implemented in QuickWave. The FDTD model is verified by solving the related electromagnetic problem by the finite element simulator COMSOL Multiphysics. The computation of dissipated power and temperature is based on experimental data on temperature-dependent dielectric constant, loss factor, specific heat and thermal conductivity of the AlN:Mo composite. The non-uniformity of patterns of dissipated power and temperature is quantified via standard-deviation-based metrics.

It is shown that with the power density of the plane wave on the block’s front face of 1.0 W/mm², at 95 GHz, 10 × 10 × 10-mm blocks with Mo = 0.25 – 4% can be heated up to 1,000 °C for 60-100 s depending on Mo content. The uniformity of the temperature field is exceptionally high – in the course of the heating, temperature is evenly distributed through the entire volume and, in particular, on the back surface of the block. The composite producing the highest level of total dissipated power is found to have Mo concentration of approximately 3%.

In the electromagnetic model, the heating of the AlN:Mo samples is characterized by the volumetric patterns of density of dissipated power for the dielectric constant and the loss factor corresponding to different temperatures of the process. The coupled model is run as an iterative procedure in which electromagnetic and thermal material parameters are upgraded in every cell after each heating time step; the process is then represented by a series of thermal patterns showing time evolution of the temperature field.

Determination of practical dimensions of the MMW heat exchanger and identification of material composition of the susceptor that make operations of the device energy efficient in the required temperature regime require and expensive experimentation. Measurement of heat distribution on the ceramic-metal interface is a practically challenging task. The reported model is meant to be a tool assisting in development of the concept and supporting system design of the new MMW heat exchanger.

While exploitation of a finite element model (e.g. in COMSOL Multiphysics environment) of the scenario in question would require excessive computational resources, the reported FDTD model shows operational capabilities of solving the coupled problem in the temperature range from 20°C to 1,000°C within a few hours on a Windows 10 workstation. The model is open for further development to serve in the ongoing support of the system design aiming to ease the related experimental studies.

The purpose of this paper is to consider double‐diffusive convection in a heated porous medium saturated with a fluid. Of particular interest is the case where the fluid has a stabilizing concentration gradient and small diffusivity.

A fully‐coupled stabilized finite element scheme and adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) methodology are introduced to solve the resulting coupled multiphysics application and resolve fine scale solution features. The code is written on top of the open source finite element library LibMesh, and is suitable for parallel, high‐performance simulations of large‐scale problems.

The stabilized adaptive finite element scheme is used to compute steady and unsteady onset of convection in a generalized Horton‐Rogers‐Lapwood problem in both two and three‐dimensional domains. A detailed study confirming the applicability of AMR in obtaining the predicted dependence of solutal Nusselt number on Lewis number is given. A semi‐permeable barrier version of the generalized HRL problem is also studied and is believed to present an interesting benchmark for AMR codes owing to the different boundary and internal layers present in the problem. Finally, some representative adaptive results in a complex 3D heated‐pipe geometry are presented.

This work demonstrates the feasibility of stabilized, adaptive finite element schemes for computing simple double‐diffusive flow models, and it represents an easily‐generalizable starting point for more complex calculations since it is based on a highly‐general finite element library. The complementary nature of h‐adaptivity and stabilized finite element techniques for this class of problem is demonstrated using particularly simple error indicators and stabilization parameters. Finally, an interesting double‐diffusive convection benchmark problem having a semi‐permeable barrier is suggested.

This paper aims to investigate in a self-designed closed loop reactor process conditions for thermal inactivation of B16 melanoma cells by microwave and conventional heating.

Besides control experiments (37°C), inactivation rate was determined in the range from 42°C to 46°C. Heating was achieved either by microwave radiation at 2.45 GHz or by warm water. To distinguish viable from dead cells, AnnexinV staining method was used and supported by field effect scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) imaging. Furthermore, numerical simulations were done to get a closer look into both heating devices. To investigate the thermal influence on cell inactivation and the differences between heating methods, a reaction kinetics approach was added as well.

Control experiments and heating at 42°C resulted in low inactivation rates. Inactivation rate at 44°C remained below 12% under conventional, whereas it increased to >70% under microwave heating. At 46°C, inactivation rate attained 68% under conventional heating; meanwhile, even 88% were determined under microwave heating. FE-SEM images showed a porous membrane structure under microwave heating in contrast to mostly intact conventional heated cells. Numerical simulations of both heating devices and a macroscopic Arrhenius approach could not sufficiently explain the observed differences in inactivation.

A combination of thermal and electrical effects owing to microwave heating results in higher inactivation rates than conventional heating achieves. Nevertheless, it was not possible to determine the exact mechanisms of inactivation under microwave radiation.

This paper aims to present an open‐ended microwave curing system for microelectronics components and a numerical analysis framework for virtual testing and prototyping of the system, enabling design of physical prototypes to be optimized, expediting the development process.

An open‐ended microwave oven system able to enhance the cure process for thermosetting polymer materials utilised in microelectronics applications is presented. The system is designed to be mounted on a precision placement machine enabling curing of individual components on a circuit board. The design of the system allows the heating pattern and heating rate to be carefully controlled optimising cure rate and cure quality. A multi‐physics analysis approach has been adopted to form a numerical model capable of capturing the complex coupling that exists between physical processes. Electromagnetic analysis has been performed using a Yee finite‐difference time‐domain scheme, while an unstructured finite volume method has been utilized to perform thermophysical analysis. The two solvers are coupled using a sampling‐based cross‐mapping algorithm.

The numerical results obtained demonstrate that the numerical model is able to obtain solutions for distribution of temperature, rate of cure, degree of cure and thermally induced stresses within an idealised polymer load heated by the proposed microwave system.

The work is limited by the absence of experimentally derived material property data and comparative experimental results. However, the model demonstrates that the proposed microwave system would seem to be a feasible method of expediting the cure rate of polymer materials.

The findings of this paper will help to provide an understanding of the behaviour of thermosetting polymer materials during microwave cure processing.

This paper aims to present a novel hybrid time integration approach for efficient numerical simulations of multiscale problems involving interactions of electromagnetic fields with fine structures.

The entire computational domain is discretized with a coarse grid and a locally refined subgrid containing the tiny objects. On the coarse grid, the time integration of Maxwell’s equations is realized by the conventional finite-difference technique, while on the subgrid, the unconditionally stable Krylov-subspace-exponential method is adopted to breakthrough the Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy stability condition.

It is shown that in contrast with the conventional finite-difference time-domain method, the proposed approach significantly reduces the memory costs and computation time while providing comparative results.

An efficient hybrid time integration approach for numerical simulations of multiscale electromagnetic problems is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the eigenforms and eigenfrequencies of stator core stack by experimental and numerical investigation. The influence of material parameters on the structural vibrations is carried out in order to describe the laminated structure of stator core stack with a homogeneous material model.

The finite element method is applied for a numerical modal analysis. Therefore, a homogeneous transversally isotropic material model is introduced and the influence of each material parameter on the dynamical behavior is investigated. These material parameters are stepwise adjusted to the results from the experimental modal analysis. The investigation includes results from different stator core stacks.

The influence of material on the modal parameters is shown. Furthermore, material parameters are carried out for stator core stacks, which describe the measured dynamical behaviour.

The presented investigations show a useable material model and corresponding parameters to the description of the laminated structure of stator core stacks.