Simulation of RF fields for wood gluing applications

The important effect of the material loading of the parallel plate electric field applicator and its interactions with the established fields is demonstrated. A comparison is then established between the simulation and physical process. Field uniformity is very important to establish uniform heating of a material in batch processing. The applicator establishes a strong electric field between two separate electrodes and a ground plate. 15kV is applied to each electrode at 13.56 MHz by a RF Generator. In this work a simplified 2D model of a wood curing lamination system has developed in COMSOL Multipysics® using empirically dielectric property data. The result indicates that due to the higher dielectric loss of the adhesive compared to the wood, it results in the absorption of a much higher amount of energy, thus curing rapidly. Broadband permittivity measurements are taken of the dielectric materials. Simulated results compare well to the experimentally observed system.