Role of length scales on microwave thawing dynamics in 2D cylinders

Microwave (MW) thawing of 2D frozen cylinders exposed to uniform plane waves from one face, is modeled using the effective heat capacity formulation with the MW power obtained from the electric field equations. Computations are illustrated for tylose (23% methyl cellulose gel) which melts over a range of temperatures giving rise to a mushy zone. Within the mushy region the dielectric properties are functions of the liquid volume fraction. The resulting coupled, time dependent non-linear equations are solved using the Galerkin finite element method with a fixed mesh. Our method efficiently captures the multiple connected thawed domains that arise due to the penetration of MWs in the sample. For a cylinder of diameter D, the two length scales that control the thawing dynamics are D/Dp and D/λm, where Dp and λm are the penetration depth and wavelength of radiation in the sample respectively. For D/Dp, D/λm≪1 power absorption is uniform and thawing occurs almost simultaneously across the sample (Regime I). For D/Dp≫1 thawing is seen to occur from the incident face, since the power decays exponentially into the sample (Regime III). At intermediate values, 0.2