A first investigation into the use of microwaves for the non-destructive testing for the presence of black heart cavities is presented. Additionally a potato's complex permittivity data between 0.5 GHz to 20 GHz measured using a coaxial sensor and the recipe for a potato phantom are also presented. Electromagnetic finite-difference time-domain simulations of potatoes show that changes to how microwaves propagate through a potato caused by a cavity can produce measurable changes in S21 at the potato's surface of up to 26 dB. Lab-based readings of the change in S21 caused by a phantom cavity submerged in a potato phantom liquid confirms the results of the simulation, albeit at a much reduced magnitude in the order of 0.1 dB.
@article{arxiv.1610.05061,
title = {Non-Destructive Testing for Black Heart Cavities in Potatoes with Microwave Radiation},
author = {Imran Mohamed and Richard Dudley and Andrew Gregory and Ralf Mouthaan and Zhengrong Tian and Paul Andrews and Andrew Mellonie},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.05061},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
4 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Conference paper. 46th European Microwave Conference, London, UK, 4th to 6th October 2016