Using AD5933 IC to Measure Dielectric Constant Variation of Atmospheric Ice
AD5933 IC is a high precision impedance converter system. In this article, it is used for detection of an atmospheric icing event and to determine atmospheric ice type. A prototype circuit is developed and is tested using a microcontroller AtMega128 clock excitation frequency from 40Hz to 20kHz. The IC is calibrated using a 100k resistor. The real and imaginary components of discrete fourier transform are recorded in order calculate the gain factor at each frequency increment. The unknown impedances are then calculated which are then utilized to calculate the complex dielectric constant of atmospheric ice at each frequency. The results are then compared with the experimental results of Stiles, Evans and Kuroiwa in order to detect an icing event and to determine its type. Results reflect that it is possible to use this approach for detection of an icing event, however it is difficult to determine icing type using this approach.