SOME STUDIES ON ENERGY

EFFICIENT INDUCTION HEATER

DOLA SINHA

Synopsis

Submitted to
INDIAN SCHOOL OF MINES, DHANBAD
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

JULY, 2012

1
 Synopsis

High frequency electrical heating is more advantageous as compared to other power frequency
electrical heating for domestic cooking purpose. High rate of heat generation, immediate
response, more uniform heat distribution, precise temperature control, full automation, good
compactness and high reliability are major features of high frequency electrical heating. This
type of heating is broadly categorized into two; i.e. dielectric heating and induction heating.
Microwave oven is the application of dielectric heating and induction cooker / induction heater
is the application of induction heating. The popularity of microwave oven is reducing day-by-
day. Because, it changes the nutrients qualities of the food through the alteration of molecular
structure of the food. Thus, it is harmful for human body. On the other hand, the heat
produced in the base of an induction cooker is transferred to the food through conduction
phenomena. As a result there is no alteration of molecular structure of food grains.

Although the popularity of induction cooker is increasing, reliability of the available

induction cookers in the commercial market is not so good. It is only because of the slow
technological development. In an induction cooker, an AC supply is rectified to DC and then
DC is used to generate a high frequency AC source through high frequency inverter. This high
frequency current produces a high frequency alternating magnetic field through an induction
coil. Placing a cooking pan / utensil close to the induction coil induces eddy current on the pan,
as a result of which, heat energy is produced on the surface of the pan. The internal resistance
of the pan is another essential parameter which causes the generation of heat as per Joules
effect. Thus, it is the pan itself and not the cooker that heats up and cooks the food.
To design the energy efficient induction cooker, proper selections of high frequency
inverter and semiconductor switches are important. The resonant inverter consists of resonant
circuit and it delivers maximum power to the load at resonant frequency. Mirror inverter is
developed from a modified half bridge series resonant inverter. This mirror inverter is used in
the present work, as it offers reduced switching losses for the power-devices and possesses
attractive possibilities for high frequency operations. Moreover, higher efficiency, lightweight,
overall simplicity in terms of inverter control, protection and maintainability of mirror inverter
have made it very attractive. In the thesis, high frequency mirror inverter-fed induction cooker
has been analyzed in three ways. Firstly, analytical expressions have been developed for
different modes of operation. In the next case, it is simulated through P-SPICE software and
finally experiments have been carried out with a real model. Results obtained through all the
three methods are found to be almost similar.

In the present work, a comparative study has been made among the various
semiconductor switches in terms of switching and conduction losses through PSPICE-based
computer simulations and real time experiments. Comparing the wave-forms of both PSPICE
simulations and real time experiments, it is seen that the selection of IGBT as a power
semiconductor switch in high frequency hybrid resonant inverter is advantageous for induction
heating purposes for frequency below 50 kHz and it is highly acceptable. IGBT offers highest
rms coil current among all the probable configurations of inverter using different power
semiconductor switches.

It has been observed that material, shape and size of the heating coil of the cooker
affect the resonant frequency, Q-factor and efficiency of the inverter. Thus, it is necessary to
optimize the physical parameters of the cooker so as to maintain the under-damped condition
for R-L-C load circuit and to get the maximum benefit of it. In the thesis, the physical
parameters such as operating frequency, AC resistance and inductance have been calculated
analytically considering type and size of wire, number of strands, number of spiral turns and
number of twists per feet of heating coil.

Determination of AC resistance theoretically is seen to be complicated and need to

solve complex mathematical equations for achieving the value of AC resistance. In the present
scheme, AC resistance of the heating coil is also determined by using a neural network. To get
better result, a binary-coded genetic algorithm has been used to tune the neural network.
Results have been compared with a well known analytical method.

Finally, one prototype model has been fabricated and experiment has been carried out
with different temperature sets. Results have been presented in the thesis. It has been observed
that the prototype model is performing satisfactory result. Thus the proposed technology can
be used to fabricate an energy efficient induction cooker.

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