Novel Methods to Characterize the Quality of Food Grains by Using Horn Antenna and Continuous Flow Method

Abstract

Characterization of food grains and measuring the quality of grain gives a solution to reduce the damage of food grain in granaries. Characterization of the quality of food grains is a growing problem in the industrial sector. The moisture content and pest in the food grain will cause damage to the grain. The main part of this experimentation is to classify the food grains which helps in increasing the food supply by reducing the damage of stored food grains. Horn antenna and Continuous flow method are applied to measure the quality of food grains. The network analyzer is used to estimate the quality of food grains by measuring S-parameters. Digital image analysis has been used in identifying the different characteristics of food grains and is difficult to measure moisture content in stored grain in this method. The electromagnetic-wave-based method will be used in this experiment with the help of horn antennas and the continuous flow method. The interaction between food grains and electromagnetic fields results in a change in dielectric properties, which leads to changes in reflection and transmission coefficients. The change in these parameters (S parameters) is analyzed to characterize the quality of food grains in frequency (1 GHz to 4 GHz) using a two-port network analyzer.