Arc Fault Location for Flat Cables by Using Time-Domain Measurements at Terminals

Abstract

Flat cables, one of the main power supply cables for mobile electrical equipment, are prone to arc faults due to insulation damage caused by external forces during operation. Due to the special structures and parameters of flat cables, there may exist significant errors in fault location when using traditional methods when facing with measurement challenges. This article first establishes the equivalent circuit model for flat cables with arc faults by considering the multiconductor structure and coupling electrical parameters. The time-domain expressions of currents flowing in conductors, together with the relation between voltages and currents at the fault point, are derived. The equations regarding fault distance and resistance are formulated to achieve accurate fault location. Signal filtering, a nonlinear least-squares framework, and synchronous measurement error estimation are employed to form the method to reduce the effects of noise interference and measurement errors in method implementation. Finally, the experimental model of a flat cable system was built using a real-time digital simulator (RTDS). The method was validated under various fault scenarios and measurement errors. Experimental results show that the fault location error does not exceed 2.25 m under various scenarios.