Investigating effectiveness of density-independent calibration algorithms for nondestructive moisture sensing in flowing grains

Three density-independent calibration functions expressed in term of the attenuation, phase shift and the dielectric properties were investigated for moisture prediction in flowing grain and seed samples. The flowing-grain system was calibrated by using static samples placed in a chute between two patch antennas operating at 5.8 GHz and connected to a vector network analyzer. Measurements at room temperature (22oC) on flowing grain and seed samples showed that moisture content can be predicted with these algorithms with a standard error of calibration of less than 1% moisture content.