Assessment of reflection and transmission techniques for determining dielectric properties of bulk wheat samples

Dielectric properties are an intrinsic property of a material, which explain their interaction with electromagnetic energy. Two measurement techniques (i.e., reflection and transmission) for measuring dielectric properties of bulk wheat samples were assessed. An open-ended coaxial probe with impedance and vector network analyzer was used for measuring reflection coefficients. With impedance analyzer, the dielectric properties of bulk wheat samples were measured over the frequency range from 0.02 GHz to 3 GHz and with network analyzer, the measurements were done at the frequency range from 0.04 GHz to 3 GHz. An open-ended coaxial probe did not succeed in measuring dielectric properties of bulk wheat samples, because the dielectric constant measured using the coaxial probe was highly variable, ranging from 1.2 to 6.7. The dielectric loss factor values however, were in the expected range (0.1 to 1) but the trend was highly variable. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...