Title :
Practical Microwave Meter for Sensing Moisture and Density of Granular Materials
Author :
Trabelsi, Samir ; Nelson, Stuart O. ; Lewis, Micah
Author_Institution :
U. S. Dept. of Agric., Richard B. Russell Agric. Res. Center, Athens, GA
Abstract :
A low-cost microwave sensor for rapid and nondestructive sensing of bulk density and moisture content in granular and particulate materials has been built and tested. The sensor was made with inexpensive, off-the-shelf components and operates at 5.8 GHz. Three permittivity-based algorithms were used to determine simultaneously bulk density and moisture content from dielectric properties measurement. Results obtained for wheat indicate the bulk density can be determined with less than 2% relative error and that moisture content can be determined with a standard error of calibration of 0.5%.
Keywords :
agricultural products; calibration; density measurement; error analysis; granular materials; microwave detectors; moisture measurement; nondestructive testing; permittivity measurement; bulk granular material density determination; calibration; dielectric properties measurement; frequency 5.8 GHz; low-cost microwave sensor; moisture content sensing technique; nondestructive sensing method; off-the-shelf components; particulate materials; permittivity-based algorithms; practical microwave meter; relative errors; standard errors; wheat; Calibration; Construction industry; Density measurement; Electric variables measurement; Frequency measurement; Microwave measurements; Microwave sensors; Microwave technology; Moisture measurement; Optical polarization; Low-cost microwave sensor; bulk density; dielectric constant; loss factor; moisture content; wheat;
Conference_Titel :
Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Proceedings, 2008. IMTC 2008. IEEE
Conference_Location :
Victoria, BC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1540-3
Electronic_ISBN :
1091-5281
DOI :
10.1109/IMTC.2008.4547187
