An artificial neural network-based non-destructive microwave technique for monitoring fluoride contamination in water

ABSTRACT

This article presents a novel non-destructive microwave technique for predicting fluoride contamination in pure water. The proposed microwave-based sensing technique uses an open-ended coaxial probe (OECP) microwave sensor for monitoring fluoride concentration in water. The sensor output is the input of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for predicting the complex dielectric constant of contaminated water, which has direct correlation with fluoride contamination in water. The ANN is trained through analytically generated sensor output for various lossy liquid materials and tested for experimental data obtained through laboratory prepared samples. Hence, the proposed technique has the capability to compute the amount of fluoride contamination faster, when compared to analysis only method. The results shows that a well-trained ANN is computationally efficient and capable of predicting the amount of fluoride level in the pure water. The results also has good agreement with the data published in the literature at room temperature.

KEYWORDS:

• Artificial neural network
• fluoride contamination
• open-ended coaxial probe sensor
• near-field plane wave spectrum theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by  Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme/DIC/Meity.

Notes on contributors

Parul Mathur

Parul Mathur received her Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from RGPV University, Bhopal, India and Master’s degree in Embedded System from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore, India in 2002 and 2012, respectively. From 2003 to 2010, she worked as Lecturer at Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering, The Oxford College of Engineering, Bangalore, India and from 2012 to 2016, as Assistant Professor at Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, (Bangalore campus), India. Currently she is pursuing her Ph.D. at Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore, India. Her research interests include microwave sensors, computational electromagnetics and material characterization.

Amrita Thakur

Amrita Thakur received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Mithila University, Darbhanga, India. She obtained her Master’s in Chemistry and Ph. D. degree from BBA Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, India in 1993 and 1999, respectively. She has been working as an Assistant Professor at Dept. of Chemistry, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Bangalore campus), India since 2008. Dr. Thakur’s research interests include complexes of transition metals, nanotechnology, medical applications of biopolymers and environmental pollution.

Dhanesh G. Kurup

Dhanesh G. Kurup received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Calicut University and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India in 1991 and 1995, respectively, and Ph.D. degrees from Uppsala University, Sweden and University of Rennes 1, France in 2003. He was with Satellite Centre, Indian space research organization (ISRO), Bangalore as a Scientist/Engineer between 1995 and 1997 and as a Guest researcher with the University of Rennes 1 between 2000 and 2003. From 2003 to 2010 he pursued research and subsequently worked as a consultant for about one year at Wavelogics AB, Sweden. From 2012 Dr. Kurup has been working as a Professor at Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Bangalore campus), India. Dr. Kurup’s research interests includes active antennas, antenna arrays, computational electromagnetics, microwave sensors for material characterization, RF circuit design and behavioural modelling of wireless systems.