ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

Table of Contents .................................................................................................... I

Content of figure .................................................................................................... II
CHAPTER ONE .....................................................................................................1
1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the study ...................................................................................1
1.2 Significance of the project ................................................................................2
1.3 Objective of the study .......................................................................................2
1.3.1 General objective ........................................................................................2
1.3.2 Specific objectives ......................................................................................2
1.4 Statement of the Problem..................................................................................2
1.5 Limitation of the project ...................................................................................3
CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................4
2 Literature Review ................................................................................................4
2.1 The common methods of locating faults ..........................................................4
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................5
3 Methodology ........................................................................................................5
3.1 Block Diagram of the system ...........................................................................6
CHAPTER FOUR...................................................................................................7
4 Material required and cost analysis .....................................................................7
4.1 Material required...............................................................................................7
References ...............................................................................................................8

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page I

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

Content of figure
Figure 1 block diagram of system ..............................................................................6

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page II

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

CHAPTER ONE
1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Till last decades cables were made to lay overheads & currently it is lay to underground cable
which is superior to earlier method. Because the underground cable are not affected by any
adverse weather condition such as storm, snow, heavy rainfall as well as pollution. But when any
fault occur in cable, then it is difficult to locate fault. So we will move to find the exact location
of fault. Now the world is become digitalized so the project is intended to detect the location of
fault in digital way. The underground cable system is more common practice followed in many
urban areas. While fault occurs for some reason, at that time the repairing process related to that
particular cable is difficult due to not knowing the exact location of cable fault.
Fault in cable is represented as:
 Any defect,
 Inconsistency,
 Weakness or non-homogeneity that affects performance of cable.
 Current is diverted from the intended path.
 Caused by breaking of conductor& failure of insulation
Fault in cable can be classified in two groups:
A) Open circuit fault:
These faults occur due to the failure of one or more conductors. The most common causes
of these faults include joint failures of cables and overhead lines, and failure of one or more
phase of circuit breaker and also due to melting of a fuse or conductor in one or more phases.
Open circuit faults are also called as series faults. These are unsymmetrical or unbalanced type of
faults except three phase open fault.
B) Short circuit fault:
A short circuit fault occurs when there is an insulation failure between phase conductors or
between phase conductor(s) and earth or both. An insulation failure results into formation of a
short circuit path that triggers a short-circuit conditions in the circuit

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 1

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

Further short circuit fault can be categorized in two types:

A) Symmetrical fault: Three-phase fault is called symmetrical fault. In this all three phases are
short circuited.
B) Unsymmetrical fault: In this fault magnitude of current is not equal & not displaced by 120
degree.
1.2 Significance of the project
This project includes aesthetics, higher public acceptance, and perceived benefits of
protection against electromagnetic field radiation (which is still present in underground
lines), fewer interruptions, and lower maintenance costs. Failure rates of overhead lines and
underground cables vary widely, but typically underground cable out agates are about half
of their equivalent overhead line types. Potentially far fewer momentary interruptions occur
from lightning, animals and tree branches falling on wires which de-energize a circuit and
then reenergize it a moment later.
The primary significance most often cited can be divided into the following areas:
 Potentially-Reduced Maintenance and Operating Costs
 Improved Reliability
 Improved Public Safety
1.3 Objective of the study
1.3.1 General objective
 The objective of this project is to determine the distance of underground cable fault
from base station in kilometers.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
 Fast repair to revive back the power system.
 Improve the system availability and performance.
 Reduce operating expense and save the time needed by the crew searching in bad weather,
noisy area and tough terrains.
1.4 Statement of the Problem
In many urban areas, cable fault is a common problem. When a fault occurs due to some
reason, the process of fault tracking without knowing the location related to that particular
cable is very difficult. The proposed system is designed to track the exact location of the fault

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 2

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

occurred in the cable. And we are seen many place in our country that are digging with this type
faults.
1.5 Limitation of the project
 The Arduino and other component require 5V DC Supply.
 Relay requires 12V dc.
 Sometimes network problems for rural areas may happen.
 Angular value required time to read so some delay occurs.

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 3

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

CHAPTER TWO
2 Literature Review
2.1 The common methods of locating faults
1. Sectionalizing: This procedure risks reducing cable reliability, because it depends on
physically cutting and splicing the cable. Dividing the cable into successively smaller sections
and measuring both ways with an ohmmeter or high-voltage insulation resistance (IR)
tester enable to narrow down search for a fault. This laborious procedure normally involves
repeated cable excavation.
2. Time domain reflectometry (TDR): The TDR sends a low-energy signal through the
cable, causing no insulation degradation. A theoretically perfect cable returns that signal in
a known time and in a known profile. Impedance variations in a “real-world” cable alter
both the time and profile, which the TDR screen or printout graphically represents. One
weakness of TDR is that it does not pinpoint faults
3. Mercury loop test: It is a bridge circuit used for locating faults in underground
or underwater cables. It uses the principle used in potentiometer experiment. One end of the
faulted cable is connected through a pair of resistors to the voltage source. Also a null detector is
connected. The other end of the cable is shorted. The bridge is brought to balance by changing
the value of RB.
4.Varley loop test: If the fault resistance is high , the sensitivity in Murray bridge is reduced
and Varely loop may be more suitable but only a single fault exists. Except that here the
ratio arms are fixed and a variable resistance is connected to the test end of the faulty cable.
The drawbacks of the above methods can be overcome to certain extent by this method in which
the concept of OHM’s law is applied.

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 4

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

CHAPTER THREE
3 Methodology
The project consists of a power supply, line display, Arduino UNO R3,fault switches and
resistance measurement .Main component of the underground cable fault detection circuit is low
value resistance measurement. It is constructed using a constant current source of 100mAmps.
The project uses the simple concept of OHMs law where a low DC voltage is applied at the
Feeder end through a series resistor. The project is assembled with a set of resistors representing
cable length in KMs and fault creation is made by a set of Switches at every known KM to cross
check the accuracy of the same. This is proposed model of underground cable fault distance
locator using Arduino. It is classified in four parts DC power supply part, cable part, controlling
part, display part. DC power supply part consist of ac supply of 230v is step-down using
transformer, bridge rectifier converts ac signal to dc & regulator is used to produce constant dc
voltage. The cable part is denoted by set of resistors along with switches. Current sensing part of
cable Represented as set of resistors &switches are used as fault creators to indicate the fault at
each Location. This part senses the change in current by sensing the voltage drop. Next is
controlling part which consists of analog to digital convertor which receives input from the
current sensing circuit, converts this voltage into digital signal and feeds the microcontroller with
the signal. The microcontroller also forms part of the controlling unit and makes necessary
calculations regarding the distance of the fault. The microcontroller also drives a relay driver
which in turn controls the switching of a set of relays for proper connection of the cable at each
phase. The display part consists of the LCD display interfaced to the microcontroller which
shows the status of the cable of each phase and the distance of the cable at the particular phase,
in case of any fault.

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 5

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

3.1 Block Diagram of the system

Figure 1 block diagram of system

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 6

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

CHAPTER FOUR
4 Material required and cost analysis
4.1 Material required
 LCD
 Crystal
 Relays
 Relay Driver IC
 Transformer
 Diodes
 Voltage Regulator
 Resistors
 Capacitors
 LEDs
 Fault switches
 Arduino board

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 7

 ARDUINO BASED UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

References
[1] .H. Shateri, S. Jamali, “Impedance Based Fault Location Method For Phase To Phase And
Three Phase Faults In Transmission Systems”, IEEE 2010.
[2]. Abhishek Pandey, Nicolas H. Younan, “Underground Cable Fault Detection and
Identification via Fourier Analysis”, 2010 IEEE.
[3]. A. Ngaopitakkul, C. Pothisarn, M. Leelajindakrairerk, “Study of Characteristics for
Simultaneous Faults in Distribution Underground Cable using DWT”, 2011 IEEE.
[4]. S. Navaneethan, J. J. Soraghan, W. H. Siew, F. McPherson, P. F. Gale ,“Automatic Fault
Location for Underground Low Voltage Distribution Networks ”IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery, Vol. 16, no. 2, April 2001

WU ECE DEP’T CONTROL STREAM, FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Page 8