Design, Simulation, and Implementation of an induction electric heater up to 300 ° C

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Malek Ashtar University of Technology

2 Malek-Ashtar University of Technology

Abstract

In this paper, design, simulation, and implementation of an induction heater with the ability of heating metals up to 300°C is carried out. The respective heater is made utilizing the relevant circuit, proper capacitor selection, and inductor design, and the experimental results are in good agreement with simulation results. In this paper, the induction heater simulation is carried out using the finite element method with COMSOL Multiphysics software. The finite element method for magnetic and thermal analysis is a conventional method and its capability has been proven in various physical fields. Therefore, finite element software has been applied to calculate and analyze the magnetic field and heat induced by induction heating. In this simulation, the relevant electric circuit is considered and all the elements are taken into account. According to the proposed electrical circuit and the related control method, a laboratory prototype proportional to the simulated dimensions is implemented in finite element software and the waveforms of the circuit parameters are analyzed. These induction heaters can be utilized in a variety of small and labware industries. In addition, they can be used as a preheater or heater for various applications (e.g., metallurgy industry, materials and metals processing, and testing in small dimensions). It should be noted that the circuit presented in this article is very cost effective and comparison of a laboratory-scale sample with simulation results demonstrates the validation and accuracy of the analysis.

Keywords


[1]      J. C. C. Galeano, G. H. Alvarez, and E. J. B. Nocua, "Design Validation and Construction of an Induction Furnace Coil," IEEE Latin America Transactions, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 720-713,2016.##
 
[2]      S. LUPI, FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTROHEAT: Electrical Technologies for Process Heating. SPRINGER, 2018.##
 
[3]      J. Choi, S. Kim, S. Kim, K. Sim, M. Park, and I. Yu, "Simulation and experimental demonstration of a large-scale HTS AC induction furnace for practical design," IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 26, no. 4, pp.4-1, 2016.##
 
[4]      V. Frizen, A. Koptyakov, V. Lusgin, and D. Tomashevskiy, "Choice of compensating device for induction furnace with dual-frequency power supply," in 18 20 17th International Conference on Computational Problems of Electrical Engineering (CPEE), 2017, pp. 5-1: IEEE.##
 
[5]      V. E. Frizen, V. I. Luzgin, A. S. Koptyakov, K. E. Bolotin, N. V. Tarchutkin, and S. E. Mironov, "Induction crucible furnace with dual frequency power supply," in 15 20 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Systems (ELMA), , pp. 426-423, 2017.##
.
[6]      N. T. T. Hang and U. Lüdtke, "Numerical simulation of channel induction furnace to investigate frequency-dependent efficiency," in 2016 IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies (ICSET), 2016, pp.95-90: IEEE.##
 
[7]      D. van Riesen and K. Hameyer, "Coupled electromagnetic, structural-dynamic, and acoustic simulation of an induction furnace," IEEE transactions on magnetics, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 1022-1019, 2006.##
 
[8]      G. A. Patil, Y. Bhosale, and V. Bolaj, "Passive filter design to mitigate harmonics in three phase induction furnace," in 2017 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies (ICCPCT), 2017, pp. 6-1: IEEE.##
 
[9]      N. Bara, "Review paper on numerical analysis of induction furnace," International Journal of Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology-IJLTET, vol. 3, pp. 557-549, 2013.##
 
[10]   A. J. Shokri , M. H. Tavakoli,  A. A. Sabouri Dodaran,  M. S. Akhoundi khezrabad, "Numerical Study of Influence of Coil Step on the Induction Heating Process in Three-Dimensional", Journal of Applied Electromagnetics, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2016,(in Persian).##
 
[11]   K. Thorborg, Power Electronics in Theory and Practice.2005.##
 
[12]   COMSOL_Multiphysics.(2018). induction_heating. Available: https://www.comsol.com/##