Systems, methods, and software for determining spatially variable distributions of the dielectric properties of a material
First Claim
1. A method of determining spatially variable distributions of one or more electrical properties of a material, comprising:
- disposing an insulated parallel waveguide adjacent the material, the insulated parallel waveguide operably connected to measurement instrumentation;
performing a time domain reflectometry measurement of the insulated parallel waveguide via the measurement instrumentation to acquire a temporal profile of apparent reflectance;
converting the temporal profile of apparent reflectance to a temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material;
converting the temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material to a spatial profile of the quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material;
converting the spatial profile to a spatial profile of moisture content of the material; and
making the spatial profile of moisture content available to a user for analysis or other use.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems, methods, and software for measuring the spatially variable relative dielectric permittivity of materials along a linear or otherwise configured sensor element, and more specifically the spatial variability of soil moisture in one dimension as inferred from the dielectric profile of the soil matrix surrounding a linear sensor element. Various methods described herein combine advances in the processing of time domain reflectometry data with innovations in physical sensing apparatuses. These advancements enable high temporal (and thus spatial) resolution of electrical reflectance continuously along an insulated waveguide that is permanently emplaced in contact with adjacent soils. The spatially resolved reflectance is directly related to impedance changes along the waveguide that are dominated by electrical permittivity contrast due to variations in soil moisture. Various methods described herein are thus able to monitor soil moisture in profile with high spatial resolution.
49 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method of determining spatially variable distributions of one or more electrical properties of a material, comprising:
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disposing an insulated parallel waveguide adjacent the material, the insulated parallel waveguide operably connected to measurement instrumentation; performing a time domain reflectometry measurement of the insulated parallel waveguide via the measurement instrumentation to acquire a temporal profile of apparent reflectance; converting the temporal profile of apparent reflectance to a temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material; converting the temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material to a spatial profile of the quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material; converting the spatial profile to a spatial profile of moisture content of the material; and making the spatial profile of moisture content available to a user for analysis or other use. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing machine-executable instructions for performing a method of determining spatially variable distributions of one or more electrical properties of a material, said machine-readable instructions comprising:
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a first set of machine-executable instructions for performing a time domain reflectometry measurement of an insulated parallel waveguide disposed proximal to the material via measurement instrumentation to acquire a temporal profile of apparent reflectance; a second set of machine-executable instructions for converting the temporal profile of apparent reflectance to a temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material; a third set of machine-executable instructions for converting the temporal profile of a quantity indicative of the one or more electrical properties of the material to a spatial profile of moisture content; and a fourth set of machine-executable instructions for making the spatial profile of moisture content available to a user for analysis or other use.
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Specification