INVESTIGATING EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON DIELECTRIC

RESPONSE OF BOUND WATER IN GRAIN

Samir Trabelsi
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Driftmier Engineering Center, The University of
Georgia, Athens, GA, U.S.A.
Stuart O. Nelson
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research
Center, P. O. Box 5677, Athens, GA 30604-5677, U.S.A
Abstract: Dielectric response of bound water in grain was investigated as temperature increased gradually from 80
o
C to about +10
o
C over a frequency range from 2 to 18 GHz.
INTRODUCTION
Electromagnetic wave interaction with materials containing water at microwave frequencies is dominated by
water [1]. Water is an important component of many biological and nonbiological materials. It is sometime
divided into two categories: free water and bound water. From an electrical standpoint, behavior of free
water is well described by the Debye dielectric model [1] with a single relaxation taking place at microwave
frequencies, while little is known about the dielectric properties of bound water. They are described as lying
somewhere between those of liquid water and those of ice depending on the degree of binding of the water
molecules. In granular materials such as cereal grain and oilseed, bound water is expected to have several
modes of binding depending on the inner structure of the kernels, the amount of water available, and the
nature of surrounding molecules. One way to study bound water behavior is to examine changes in dielectric
properties resulting from temperature changes. In this study, samples of wheat of given bulk density and
moisture content were cooled to 80
o
C, and their dielectric properties were measured in free space between
2 and 18 GHz as their temperature increased gradually at room temperature. The data collected constitutes
the basis for better understanding and modeling of the electrical behavior of bound water. As an example,
variations of the two components of the effective complex permittivity, c' and c", with temperature are
shown at 8 GHz.
COMPLEX PERMITTIVITY MEASUREMENT
Granular materials such as cereal grain are random dense media made up of components of different
dielectric behaviors. The effective complex permittivities of these media can be determined from
measurements with different techniques [2]. In this study, a free-space transmission technique was used [3].
The measurements were carried out at microwave frequencies on two samples of hard red winter wheat of
known bulk density and moisture content, which were completely sealed off and Cooled 80
o
C for three
days. Each sample was placed between two linearly polarized horn/lens antennas, and the dielectric
properties were measured as the temperature increased gradually at room temperature. The measurement
arrangement is shown in Figure 1. The two components of the effective complex permittivity, c' and c" were
determined from measurement of the scattering transmission coefficient, . Assuming a plane wave is
propagating through low-loss samples, c' and c" were calculated as follows [4]:
21
S
2
360
1
(

Au
+ = '
f
c
d
c (1)
c
t
c '
A
= ' '
f
c
d
A
686 . 8
(2)
where c is the speed of light, f is the frequency, d is the sample thickness, AA is the attenuation, and Au is
the phase shift attributable to the presence of the sample . The attenuation in dB and phase shift in degrees
were calculated from the measured modulus,
21
S , and argument, , of as follows:
21
S
21
log 20 S A = A (3)
n = Au 360 (4)
URSI EMTS 2004 495
where n is an integer to be determined [5]. Both AA and Au are taken as positive numbers in equations (1)
and (2).
o o
S
Synthesized Sweeper
Vector
Network
Analyzer
Horn/lens antenna
Transmitter
Horn/lens antenna
Receiver
Cable
Printer
Computer
S - Parameters
Attenuator
Wooden Mount
Radiation-absorbing
material
Sample
Figure 1. Measurement setup
For a better accuracy in determining c' and c", some measurement precautions were applied. The thickness
of the sample was selected to ensure at least 10-dB attenuation to avoid the influence of multiple reflections
within the sample. The sample was surrounded by radiation-absorbing material to eliminate surroundings
influence. Finally, time-domain gating was applied to the trace of (modulus and phase) to filter out
undesirable effects resulting from postcalibration mismatches and possible multiple-path transmission [3].
21
S
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
At microwave frequencies, water molecules dominate the dielectric response of any material containing
water because of its polar nature [1]. Figure 2 shows typical variations of c' and c" with temperature at a
given frequency. They both increase with temperature. For both wheat samples, a slope change can be
observed around 20
o
C with the change more pronounced for the sample with higher moisture content. This
change is similar to, but less abrupt than, that of free water which takes place at 0
o
C because of phase
change from solid (ice) to liquid. It could be interpreted as a change in the nature of bound water behavior
from tightly bound to more loosely bound. Figure 3 shows the Argand diagram where the dielectric loss
factor divided by density is plotted versus the dielectric constant divided by density. Data corresponding to
both wheat samples are superimposed and form a straight line in the complex plane confirming previous
observations [6]. The x-axis intercept corresponds to the dielectric constant divided by density of a sample
with zero moisture content or a sample at very low temperature. At this temperature, the mobility of the
water-molecules dipoles is nearly zero, and thus the electromagnetic wave does not undergo appreciable
attenuation because the dielectric loss factor is nearly zero.
REFERENCES
[1] J. B. Hasted, Aqueous Dielectrics. London: Chapman and Hall, 1973.
[2] H. E. Bussey, "Measurement of the RF properties of materials - A survey," Proc. IEEE, vol. 55, pp. 1046-
1053, 1967.
[3] S. Trabelsi and S. O. Nelson, "Free-space measurement of dielectric properties of cereal grain and oilseed at
microwave frequencies," Measurement Science and Technology, vol. 14, pp. 589-600, 2003.
[4] E. Nyfors and P. Vainikainen, Industrial Microwave Sensors. Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1989.
[5] S. Trabelsi, A. W. Kraszewski, and S. O. Nelson, "Phase-shift ambiguity in microwave dielectric properties
measurements," IEEE Transactions on Instrumenation and Measurement, vol. 49, pp. 56-60, 2000.
[6] S. Trabelsi, A. Kraszewski, and S. O. Nelson, "New density-independent calibration function for microwave
sensing of moisture content in particulate materials," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and
Measurement, vol. 47, pp. 613-622, 1998.
496 URSI EMTS 2004
TEMPERATURE,
o
C
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20
c"
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
TEMPERATURE,
o
C
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20
c'
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
M=15.7%, =0.80 g/cm
3
, d=15.4 cm
M=23.6%, =0.81 g/cm
3
, d=9.8 cm
Figure 2. Variations of the dielectric constant and loss factor of hard red winter wheat of indicated moisture
content Mand bulk density with temperature at 8 GHz.
c'/
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
c"/
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
M=15.7%, =0.80 g/cm
3
, d=15.4 cm
M=23.6%, =0.81 g/cm
3
, d=9.8 cm
Figure 3. Argand diagram for wheat samples at 8.0 GHz and temperatures from 80
o
C to 11
o
C.
URSI EMTS 2004 497