Mass-Insensitive Dielectric Moisture Meter with a Novel Measured Moisture Parameter

Abstract

A dielectric moisture meter is described in which moisture content is determined from the phase shift angle between the increments in the total conductivity of the measurement capacitor of the probe of the moisture meter and its reactive component. These increments are produced by introducing sample material into the capacitor. This kind of moisture meter is shown to be insensitive to the mass of the sample, but is quite sensitive to its moisture content. By comparison with other mass-insensitive moisture meters, this meter has a simpler design and has smaller measurement errors because of a reduced number of measurement and computational operations.