Monitoring of Water Content And Frozen State by using Millimeter Wave Absorption Features

Abstract

In this research, we built an experimental setup for measuring the water content in plants and food, and for determining the water/ice state of a sample. The setup consists of a 35 GHz Gunn oscillator producing about 10 mW of output power, two horn antennas and a power meter. We have checked that the absorption of a leaf is directly proportional to its water content, and we could show how changes of the water content depend on photosynthesis, by intermittent illumination with a white fluorescent lamp. In another direction of research, we verified that the difference in the absorption coefficients for water and ice is significant, and we could discriminate and monitor the frozen state of water and food material. All these experiments demonstrate the possibility of applying millimeter waves to fields such as botany, agriculture, and food industry.