Investigation on Microwave Heating Characteristic of Watery Object Buried in Soil

For the purpose of developing chemicals-free soil disinfection technology, microwave heating of a watery rod buried in soil has been investigated by using multiphysics simulation, COMSOL. The soil investigated was loamy soil having 13.77% moisture. A 2.45 GHz microwave was radiated using the standard horn antenna. Temperature of the water rod is found to become higher than the surrounding soil. There is a rod radius showing the highest heating rate. The presence of the highest-rate radius suggests that the microwave technique has the potential to develop a pest control method which can keep beneficial microorganisms alive. To improve spatial uniformity and increase heating depth, the pair-plate guide structure and the use of synthesized waves from double horn antenna are investigated.