Dielectric determination of glucose solutions under microwave fields via a novel molecular dynamics simulation approach

Abstract A novel molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method was developed for the dielectric determination of glucose solutions under a microwave field. The dielectric spectra were experimentally analyzed, and then the Debye relaxation model was chosen. The static dielectric property and relaxation time calculated based on the MD simulation were employed in the Debye function to compute the simulated dielectric spectra. The simulated dielectric properties at 2.45 GHz and 915 MHz were in good agreement with the experimental values (maximum RMSE = 0.430), validating the established MD simulation method. No significant difference was found between the dielectric properties of glucose solutions simulated with and without a microwave electric field of 105 V/m, indicating that the microwave electric field exhibited no other tangible effect on the dielectric properties, except for the temperature effects. Therefore, the experimentally measured dielectric properties suffice to predict and analyze the microwave absorption and thermal conversion of glucose solutions during food processing.