Underground cable fault detector

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Athulya Menon

Power generation and transmission are essential and integral parts of maintaining any industry. Most companies, whether it be electrical or telephonic use underground cables to transmit power and transfer data. The damage done to these cables over time can lead to severe repercussions such as the loss of data, and power.

Engineering is partly about learning new concepts and mainly about using those concepts to solve real-world problems. This time around, we will take a look at a Wireless Technology project that can resolve the issue with faulty cables.

Project Description

This project will help in detecting locations of faulty underground cable lines in terms of kilometers utilizing an Arduino microcontroller. Urban areas mostly use underground electrical wires to transmit power. Since the cable runs underground, it is not always easy to detect the location of the fault, and hence their repair becomes complicated. The proposed system will help the user find the exact location of the fault, thereby making repair and recalibration a whole lot easier. The system makes use of an Arduino kit and rectified power supply to detect the faults.

Project Implementation

Generally, three different types of faults are short circuit, open circuit, and earth fault.
A short circuit transpires as a result of insulation collapse between conductors or conductor and the earth.
An open-circuit fault befalls a circuit when it is disrupted by some other kind of failure.
An earth fault happens as a result of unexpected contact between a conductor and the earth.
The current sensing circuits are made by combining the right kind of resistors.
The resistance of the cable required to form the circuit can be calculated by taking into effect skin proximity, wherein Rac=Rdc(1+Ys +Yp).
The DC cable resistance must take into effect the changes due to temperature and is hence, Rdc=((1.02*10^6*ρ)(1+α(θ-20)))/s.
This device can be used to detect open circuit by introducing a capacitor into the circuit and measuring the change in its capacitance across various lengths.
This circuit is then interfaced with the Arduino kit.
The relays used in the circuit are controlled using a relay driver.
To induce faults, 12 switches are arranged in three rows and then used.
A 16x2 LCD display is connected to the Arduino processor and displays the information regarding the faulty cable.
As and when a short circuit comes into play, the voltage across the circuit varies, and this activates the ADC, which then uses the microcontroller to find the precise location of the shorting.
Whenever a voltage variation occurs, the processor also sounds the buzzer attached to it, helping to notify the user about the fault.

Concepts Used

Basic Electronics
Signal Transmission
Signal Processing
Arduino Programming
Wireless Transmission
Circuit-making and Design

Kit required to develop Underground cable fault detector:

Technologies you will learn by working on Underground cable fault detector:

Underground cable fault detector

Any Questions?

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