Microwave moisture meter for granular and particulate materials

Author

Trabelsi, Samir ; Nelson, Stuart O.

Author_Institution

U. S. Dept. of Agric., Agric. Res. Service, Athens, GA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

3-6 May 2010

Firstpage

1304

Lastpage

1308

Abstract

A low-cost microwave moisture meter operating at a single frequency for instantaneous and nondestructive determination of moisture content of granular and particulate materials was developed, calibrated and tested with different kinds of grain and seed. The meter operates at a single microwave frequency of 5.8 GHz and uses the principle of free-space transmission measurement for the determination of attenuation, phase shift, and dielectric properties of a layer of material. Moisture content is determined independent of bulk density from the dielectric properties with a permittivity-based algorithm.

Keywords

dielectric properties; granular materials; microwave measurement; permittivity; phase shifters; bulk density; dielectric properties; free-space transmission measurement; frequency 5.8 GHz; granular-particulate materials; microwave moisture meter; nondestructive determination; permittivity-based algorithm; Attenuation measurement; Dielectric materials; Dielectric measurements; Frequency measurement; Materials testing; Microwave frequencies; Microwave measurements; Moisture; Nondestructive testing; Permittivity measurement; density-independent algorithm; grain and seed; low cost; microwave measurements; moisture meter;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

ISSN

1091-5281

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2832-8

Electronic_ISBN

1091-5281

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMTC.2010.5488071

Filename

5488071