Design of a microcontroller based liquid heater operating with the principle of induction heating

In this study, a microcontroller based liquid heater operating with the principle of induction heating is designed, realized and tested. Induction heating technology has the superiorities of being a system whose process duration is short, which has no temperature distribution through environment with its high efficiency and do not let occasions such as combustion or bursting. Due to these superiorities; its usage in industry and home-type applications has been increasing everyday. In the developed prototype, 220 V AC public electrical main supply is converted to the DC bus voltage with the aid of the bridge rectifier and filter. Then, the obtained DC bus voltage is supplied to a 16,66 kHz parallel resonant circuit via a bridge DC-AC converter. Current of the resonant circuit generates a powerful electromagnetic field inside the resonant inductor. The magnetic field induces high currents in the magnetic material positioned inside the resonant inductor, and heats it. Transfer of the resulted heat energy from the magnetic material to the liquid is provided by passing the liquid around this magnetic material. In the experimental studies, public water supply is used as liquid. According to the measurements results, the developed prototype increases the water temperature from 30 °C to 64 °C at flow-rate of 1 l/min, and from 30 °C to 94 °C at flow-rate of 0,5 l/min.