Novel TDT Sensor for Soil Moisture Profile Probe †
by
, , , , ,
Marcin Kafarski
1,2,*
,
Andrzej Wilczek
2,
Agnieszka Szypłowska
2,
Arkadiusz Lewandowski
2,3,
Justyna Szerement
2,
Steffen Trinks
4,
Gerd Wessolek
4 and
Wojciech Skierucha
2 1
The State School of Higher Education in Chełm, Pocztowa 54, 22-100 Chełm, Poland
2
Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Doświadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland
3
Institute of Electronic Systems, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
4
Institute of Ecology, Technical University Berlin, Berlin 10115, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 5th International Symposium on Sensor Science (I3S 2017), Barcelona, Spain, 27–29 September 2017.
Proceedings 2017, 1(8), 839; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1080839
Published: 30 November 2017
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Sensor Science (I3S 2017))
The aim of the work was to experimentally determine the sensitivity and resolution of a single sensor installed in a profile probe for moisture measurement at various soil profile depths. Its design and the principle of operation were based on a novel patent-pending implementation of the time-domain-transmissionmetry (TDT) technique using differential signals.
The sensor consisted of two stainless steel stripes wound around a plastic tube 40 mm in diameter in the form of cut loops, comprising a differential balanced line connected to a PCB placed inside the tube. Two symmetrical input and output ports were formed at the connection points. The delay of the input signal measured at the output depended on dielectric permittivity of a material surrounding the probe.
The difference in the signal delay registered for the probe, surrounded by air and water, divided by the sensor resolution, obtained from the phase loops jitter, allowed the determination of the sensor sensitivity, which was found to be under 0.1% of volumetric water content. The sensitivity can be further enhanced by elongating the length of the transmission line by increasing the probe diameter.
The work has been supported by the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland, grant no. STAIR/5/2016.
© 2017 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/).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kafarski, M.; Wilczek, A.; Szypłowska, A.; Lewandowski, A.; Szerement, J.; Trinks, S.; Wessolek, G.; Skierucha, W. Novel TDT Sensor for Soil Moisture Profile Probe. Proceedings 2017, 1, 839. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1080839
AMA Style
Kafarski M, Wilczek A, Szypłowska A, Lewandowski A, Szerement J, Trinks S, Wessolek G, Skierucha W. Novel TDT Sensor for Soil Moisture Profile Probe. Proceedings. 2017; 1(8):839. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1080839
Chicago/Turabian StyleKafarski, Marcin, Andrzej Wilczek, Agnieszka Szypłowska, Arkadiusz Lewandowski, Justyna Szerement, Steffen Trinks, Gerd Wessolek, and Wojciech Skierucha. 2017. "Novel TDT Sensor for Soil Moisture Profile Probe" Proceedings 1, no. 8: 839. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1080839
