Pseudo-static electromagnetic modelling of moisture sensors in lossy dielectrics

Abstract

Both integral equation and differential equation methods enable modelling moisture content sensors in heterogeneous materials, although integral equation methods provide better computational efficiency when inverting measurements to determine moisture distribution. Here we describe predicting dielectric loss, while retaining the relative simplicity enabled by the pseudo-static integral equation approach. The new model sums the electric field components from the polarisation, and sums elements of electric current to quantify the loss component. Including both summations enabled calculating the conductivity of a lossy, heterogeneous dielectric, and the telegraphers equation provides the velocity and attenuation of a time domain signal on a transmission line.