Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 49, 31201 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2010007

In situ measurements of complex permittivity and moisture content in oil palm fruits

¹ Centre for Communication Systems and Networks, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
² Department of Physics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43300 UPM Serdang, Malaysia
³ Department of Radio Communication Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
⁴ School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, Wales, UK

Corresponding author: kylee@utar.edu.my

Received: 14 September 2009
Accepted: 24 November 2009
Published online: 16 February 2010

Abstract

An in situ measurement system for oil palm fruit's permittivity and moisture content determination is presented. The instrumentation is includes a six-port reflectometer and an open ended coaxial probe which operates at 2 GHz. The developed system was tested and compared with the data obtained using commercial dielectric measurement probe and mixture model. This system is found to be practical for in situ measurement as well as fast and cost effective for oil palm fruit's properties and quality inspection.