High-efficiency flow-through induction heating

Abstract

This study reports a newly designed induction heating system for efficient, fast, and safe flow-through heating. The system has a very simple architecture, which is composed of a transmitting coil, an isolating plastic pipe, and an embedded metal shell. Wireless energy transfer from the external coil to the internal metal shell through the pipe is essential for decreasing losses. Also, a large contact surface between a fluid and the immersed shell enables rapid heat transfer. The proposed heating system was systematically investigated for different shell geometries and the results were compared with a commercially available conductive flow-through heating device. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a prototype of the designed induction heating system was manufactured and the heating measurements were conducted with water. Power transfer efficiency of the prototyped induction heating system was measured to be 97%. The comparative study indicates that such high-efficiency induction flow-through heating system offers a great potential for replacing the conventional conductive heating device used in household applications in which the rapid and compact heating is desired.