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Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement
Soil volumetric water content (θ) is a parameter describing one of the most important factors conditioning proper plant growth. Monitoring soil moisture is of particular importance in the rational use of water resources for irrigation, especially during periods of water scarcity. This paper presents...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219328/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32331394 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20082374 |
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author | Majcher, Jacek Kafarski, Marcin Wilczek, Andrzej Woszczyk, Aleksandra Szypłowska, Agnieszka Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Szerement, Justyna Skierucha, Wojciech |
author_facet | Majcher, Jacek Kafarski, Marcin Wilczek, Andrzej Woszczyk, Aleksandra Szypłowska, Agnieszka Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Szerement, Justyna Skierucha, Wojciech |
author_sort | Majcher, Jacek |
collection | PubMed |
description | Soil volumetric water content (θ) is a parameter describing one of the most important factors conditioning proper plant growth. Monitoring soil moisture is of particular importance in the rational use of water resources for irrigation, especially during periods of water scarcity. This paper presents a method of measuring soil moisture in the vicinity of the plant root system by means of a probe designed to be mounted on a mobile device used for precise plant irrigation. Due to the specific field conditions of the measurement, the design of the probe was proposed as a monopole antenna. Electromagnetic simulations of the probe were carried out with Ansys HFSS software to optimise its dimensions. Then a prototype of the probe was manufactured to conduct laboratory measurements with the use of a vector network analyser (VNA) working in the 20 kHz to 8 GHz frequency range. The VNA analyser was configured to work in the time-domain reflectometry (TDR) mode. From measurements of the time distance between reflections from the probe’s elements it is possible to calculate the bulk dielectric permittivity of the soil surrounding the probe. Next, based on commonly used soil moisture dielectric calibrations one can determine θ of the soil sample. The paper presents simulation results and laboratory tests of an antenna probe. Due to its tough and durable design, this type of probe gives the possibility of easy application in field conditions, which makes it especially suitable for mechanically demanding measurement systems. As the sensitivity zone is comparatively large, this probe is well-suited to measuring soil moisture in the vicinity of the plant root system. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7219328 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72193282020-05-22 Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement Majcher, Jacek Kafarski, Marcin Wilczek, Andrzej Woszczyk, Aleksandra Szypłowska, Agnieszka Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Szerement, Justyna Skierucha, Wojciech Sensors (Basel) Article Soil volumetric water content (θ) is a parameter describing one of the most important factors conditioning proper plant growth. Monitoring soil moisture is of particular importance in the rational use of water resources for irrigation, especially during periods of water scarcity. This paper presents a method of measuring soil moisture in the vicinity of the plant root system by means of a probe designed to be mounted on a mobile device used for precise plant irrigation. Due to the specific field conditions of the measurement, the design of the probe was proposed as a monopole antenna. Electromagnetic simulations of the probe were carried out with Ansys HFSS software to optimise its dimensions. Then a prototype of the probe was manufactured to conduct laboratory measurements with the use of a vector network analyser (VNA) working in the 20 kHz to 8 GHz frequency range. The VNA analyser was configured to work in the time-domain reflectometry (TDR) mode. From measurements of the time distance between reflections from the probe’s elements it is possible to calculate the bulk dielectric permittivity of the soil surrounding the probe. Next, based on commonly used soil moisture dielectric calibrations one can determine θ of the soil sample. The paper presents simulation results and laboratory tests of an antenna probe. Due to its tough and durable design, this type of probe gives the possibility of easy application in field conditions, which makes it especially suitable for mechanically demanding measurement systems. As the sensitivity zone is comparatively large, this probe is well-suited to measuring soil moisture in the vicinity of the plant root system. MDPI 2020-04-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7219328/ /pubmed/32331394 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20082374 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Majcher, Jacek Kafarski, Marcin Wilczek, Andrzej Woszczyk, Aleksandra Szypłowska, Agnieszka Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Szerement, Justyna Skierucha, Wojciech Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title | Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title_full | Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title_fullStr | Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title_full_unstemmed | Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title_short | Application of a Monopole Antenna Probe with an Optimized Flange Diameter for TDR Soil Moisture Measurement |
title_sort | application of a monopole antenna probe with an optimized flange diameter for tdr soil moisture measurement |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219328/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32331394 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20082374 |
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