Multifunctional microwave heating and absorbing honeycomb core using nickel-coated glass fabric

Abstract

This paper presents a multifunctional honeycomb core with nickel-coated fabric (NCF) prepared via electroless plating, which combines microwave heating and absorbing functionalities based on the transformation of electromagnetic (EM) wave energy into thermal energy through molecular frictional force and dielectric loss. The proposed microwave heating and absorbing honeycomb core (MHAHC) is designed for multifunctional purposes with a tradeoff between power loss density and heating performance as well as microwave absorption for low observable performances. To investigate the microwave heating properties of the designed MHAHC, which exhibited a -10 dB microwave absorption performance from 1 to 18 GHz, a microwave heating test and a numerical simulation were conducted for a detailed analysis of the heating properties of the MHAHC. The experiments demonstrated that the designed MHAHC can be heated up to 43 degrees C within 1800 s at 5.8 GHz of microwave with 25 W.