Method and apparatus for determining the moisture content of cereal and other granular materials

摘要

According to the method, the cereal or the granular material is placed in the electrical alternating field generated by a radio-frequency generator (3) between electrodes (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) of a leakage-field capacitor (2) and the current flowing through the leakage-field capacitor (2) is measured. The amplitude of this current depends on the capacitance of the leakage-field capacitor (2). This capacitance involves the permittivity of the cereal or of the granular material, especially that of its moisture content, and is a sensitive measure of the moisture content. The apparatus has a container (1) for the cereal or granular material on which a leakage-field capacitor (2) connected to a radio-frequency generator (3) is mounted. A current measuring device (4) is applied to the circuit consisting of radio-frequency generator (3) and leakage-field capacitor (2). <IMAGE>