Temperature gradients that develop in ceramic materials during microwave heating are known to be strongly dependent on the applied microwave frequency. To gain a better understanding of this dependence, identical samples of ZnO powder compacts were microwave heated at three distinct widely separated frequencies of 2.45, 30, and 83 GHz and the core and surface temperatures were simultaneously monitored. At 2.45 GHz, the approximately uniform “volumetric” heating tends to raise the temperature of the sample as a whole, but the interior becomes hotter than the exterior because of heat loss from the surface. At 30 and 83 GHz, this interior to exterior temperature difference was found to be reversed, especially for high heating rates. This reversal resulted from increased energy deposition close to the sample's surface associated with reduced skin depth. A model for solving Maxwell's equations was incorporated into a newly developed two‐dimensional (2‐D) heat transport simulation code. The numerical simulations are in agreement with the experimental results. Simultaneous application of two or more widely separated frequencies is expected to allow electronic tailoring of the temperature profile during sintering.

A model of microwave sintering of multilayer graded metal ceramic structures is presented. Based on the sintering kinetic data for pure materials, numerical calculations of densification of multilayer compo sitions have been accomplished. Experimentally, the compaction conditions of the multilayer powder com positions and the microwave heating regimes that ensure obtaining integral multilayer structures Al 2 O 3 -Ni, Al 2 O 3 -NiAl and ZrO 2 -Mo with stepwise varying composition have been determined.

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The mechanical properties and microstructure formation processes in Si3N4+3% AI2O3+5% Y2O3(Yb2O3) ceramic compacts sintered under microwave heating (MWH) and under traditional heating (TH) were investigated. The initial ceramic materials were powder blends of silicon nitride with oxides. The mean powder particle sizes were 0.5-1.0 mim. The content of alfa-phase in the Si3N4 powder was more than 95 %. The samples were sintered at 1800BC in nitrogen at normal pressure, the heating rate in all experiments was 60BC/min. The Vickers hardness (HV), fracture toughness (K1C) and bending strength (on) were determined. The microstructures of fracture surfaces of samples were studied by SEM. Quantitative microstructure analysis was carried out. It was shown that the values of HV and Kic of ceramic samples sintered under MWH at 1800BC rose steadily with the sintering time. This caused an increase in density, which reached maximum as fast as after 30 min of the MWH sintering; the mass loss at that time amounted to 3-4 %. The porosity of sintered samples with an addition of yttria was less than 1 %, that of ytterbia was greater, 2.4 %. For similar values of relative density, the hardness and fracture toughness of ceramic samples produced under MWH were higher as compared with those of samples sintered under TH. The microstructure of samples had the form of elongated grains in a matrix of polyhedral grains of the beta-Si3N4 phase. Measurements showed the mean size of grains in samples produced by MWH to be greater that in samples produced by TH. A larger number of elongated grains were formed. It was concluded that for sintering under MWH of Si3N4-based ceramics the growth of elongated beta-Si3N4 grains and formation of a "reinforced" microstructure were promoted and thereby improved the mechanical properties of such ceramics

Comparative study of microwave sintering at frequencies 30 and 83 GHz, and the comparison between microwave and fast conventional sintering were undertaken with the aim to ascertain the possibility of specific non-thermal effects at microwave heating. It is shown that an enhancement of sintering can not be explained by the action of thermal stresses caused by peculiar distibution of the temperature field within the microwave-heated samples.