literature review of underground cable fault distance locator

underground cable fault distance locator abstract

The project is intended to detect the location of a fault in underground cable lines from the base station in kilometers.

In the urban areas, the electrical cables run underground instead of running overhead. Whenever any fault occurs within the underground cable, it becomes difficult to detect the exact location of the fault for the process of repairing that particular cable. The proposed system finds the point of the exact location of the fault.

The project uses the standard concept of Ohms law, i.e., when a low DC voltage is applied at the feeder end through a series resistor (Cable lines), then the current would vary depending upon the location of the short circuit fault in the cable.

This system uses a microcontroller of the 8051 family and a rectified power supply. Here, the current sensing circuit in combination with the resistors is interfaced to the microcontroller with the help of an ADC device for representing the cable length in Km. The fault creation is made by a set of switches. The relays are controlled by a relay driver IC, which is used to check the cable line. The 16x2 LCD display connected to the microcontroller is used to display the information.

In case of a short circuit (Line to Ground), the voltage across the series resistors changes accordingly. It is then fed to an ADC to develop the precise digital data which is directed to the programmed microcontroller of the 8051 family in order to display the same in kilometers.

The project in future can be implemented by using a capacitor in an AC circuit to measure the impedance which can even locate the open circuited cable.