Design and development of microstrip sensor for determination of moisture content

Abstract

Million-tonnes of grains destroyed either due to insects or moisture directly newlineaffects the quality of food grains. But the concern here is, not insects because various newlinepests control pesticides are available, moisture whose control is very difficult and its early newlinerecognition can be prove beneficial for country s food buffer stock. For that, various newlineresearcher s has proposed their study for detection of moisture content in stored grains newlineand some of them being prove boon, but somewhere moisture sensors are not able to newlinedetect moisture quickly and costly as well. To address the drawbacks in, we propose a newlinenovel approach with microstrip antenna as a moisture sensor to detect the moisture newlinecontent (MC) in basmati rice. Initially, microstrip moisture sensor (MMS) was designed newlineat 8.1 GHz on X-Band for detecting the moisture content of rice. For determining the newlineaccuracy of sensor, AMC and PMC was compared, if there was any difference between newlineAMC and PMC, it was mentioned as mean relative error (MRE). AMC, was obtained by newlinestandard microwave oven drying weight (MODW) technique, varied from 10.71% to newline21.87% (for five samples) while PMC, was determined through calibration equation at newline8.1 GHz, varied from 10.55% to 21.59%. Hence, lowest MRE was obtained 1.53%, newlinewhich means when the rice will be fully saturated (100%) then the sensor will detect newlinemoisture by lowering actual moisture 1.53% i.e. 98.47%. newlineFor further improving MRE in above design, the new design of sensor for dual frequency newline5.2 GHz and 6.8 GHz on C-Band was proposed. To obtain MRE, PMC was varied from newline10.65% to 21.73% while AMC was varied from 10.71% to 21.87%. Hence, MRE was newlineobtained 0.52%. Therefore, it can be said that there was improvement in MRE in newlinecomparison with former design. newline