EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION FOR SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS IN MICROWAVE

The paper is concerned with one aspect of optimization of microwave thermal processing, namely, with optimization of energy coupling interpreted as a numerical characteristic of system effi ciency. Since in computer-aided design coupling can be evaluated through the computed refl ections, an optimization scheme is presented that is particularly suitable for minimizing the refl ection coeffi cient in typical systems and elements of microwave power engineering. Based on response surface methodology and the sequential quadratic programming for constrained optimization, the procedure is linked with the full-wave 3-D FDTD electromagnetic simulator QuickWave-3D. Credibility and effectiveness of the method is illustrated by four examples: dimensional optimization is performed for a dry waveguide load, a waveguide T-junction with a partial-height post, a water cylinder in a cavity, and a slotted waveguide-backed radiating element