new dielectric sensors and sensing techniques for soil and snow moisture measurements新的土壤介电传感器和传感技术和雪水分测量.pdfVIP

Sensors 2009, 9, 2951-2967; doi: 10.3390/ OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article New Dielectric Sensors and Sensing Techniques for Soil and Snow Moisture Measurements Markus Stacheder*, Franz Koeniger and Rainer Schuhmann Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Competence Centre for Material Moisture (CMM), c/o Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Funktionelle Grenzflächen, Postfach 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany; E-Mails: franz.koeniger@ifg.fzk.de; rainer.schuhmann@ifg.fzk.de * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: markus.stacheder@ifg.fzk.de Received: 8 April 2009; in revised form: 17 April 2009 / Accepted: 22 April 2009 / Published: 22 April 2009 Abstract: Measurements of material moisture are essential in fields such as agriculture or civil engineering. Electromagnetic techniques, more precisely dielectric methods, have gained wide acceptance in the last decades. Frequency or Time Domain methods take advantage of the high dielectric permittivity of water compared to dry materials. This paper presents four new dielectric sensors for the determination of soil or snow water content. After a short introduction into the principles, both the hardware and operating mode of each sensor are described. Field test results show the advantages and potentials such as automatic measurement and profiling, state-of-ground detection or la