IEE 2nd International Conference on Advances in Power System Control, Operation and Management, December 1993, Hong Kong

Signature Representation of Underground Cables and its Applications to Cable Fault Diagnosis
C.M. Ho, W.K. Lee and Y.S. Hung
University of Hong Kong. Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

Abstract
The pulse-echo method for cable fault location is studied using transmission line theory. It is shown that both the position and the magnitude of pulse echoes can be determined in terms of the cable dimensions and the fault conditions. For a healthy cable, an algorithm for estimating the cable topology and the cable dimensions from its pulse-echo response is obtained. This provides a justificalion for taking the pulse-echo response as a signature representation of the cable.

refer to the relative positions of tee joints in a cable, and the lengths of cable sections between joints and cable ends, respectively.) We then consider the inverse problem as to how one may deduce the topology and the dimensions of the cable from its pulse-echo response. It will be shown that an algorithm can be constructed to resolve this problem in the case of a healthy cable. As a result, the pulseecho response of the cable can be taken as a timedomain signature representation uniquely characterizing the cable.

Keywords: pulse-echo method. cable fault location, signature representation.

2. Mathematical Model of a Cable

We will take a state-space approach to the modelling of a cable. A cable can be divided into N sections each of 1,ength 6 1 , and the cable parameters within each section are lumped together as illustrated in Fig. 1 for the case of a straight cable. Let R , L, G , C be the resistance, inductance, capacitance and conductance per unit length of the cable, and let
6 R = R61, 6 L = L.61, 6C = C61, 6 G = G61
(1)

1. Introduction
The method of pulse-echo reflection is a common technique used for locating underground cable faults (e.g. see [ l , 41). In a fault diagnosis situation, the field engineer would look for abnormalities in the pulse-echo response and try to deduce the location and the nature of the fault from the position and the form of the echo suspected to be reflected from the fault. The technique however has its difficulties particularly for cables with tee joints which result i n pulse-echoes that are hard to interpret. This is due to a lack of a comprehensive set of rules of an analytical nature which tells the field engineer how the pulseecho response is related to the cable dimensions and fault conditions.

be the lumped parameters for one section of the cable. Taking the input voltage V , and the output current I , of the kth section as the state variables, a statespace model for the system is
. 1 v,= -( U v,6 G - I , )
-

6C

In this paper, we will first show how the position and the magnitude of the pulses in a pulse-echo response are related lo the topology and the dimensions of the cable. (We use the terms topology and dimensions to

Figure 1
861

I , = - ( V , -1,(6R+R0)) 6L
where U is an input current pulse sent into the cable at an input node and R, is the termination resistance at the remote end of the cable. Although we have used a straight cable to illustrate the use of a state-space model, the state-space model can be readily extended to the case of cables with tee joints and with different types of cables joined together. The state-space model given in (2) is used for the purpose of simulation (see [2]). The order of the model (i.e. N) is typically very large for the simulation results to be sufficiently accurate. We remark that there are methods for reducing the computational requirements in the simulation but the computational aspects will not be considered here.

(4)
When a pulse travelling along a cable of characteristic impedance Z, meets a discontinuity such as a joint, a cable end or a fault, the pulse is partially transmitted and partially reflected (see [ 3 ] ) , with: reflection coefficient:
ZL -zo p=ZL +Z"
n-7

(5)

LL

transmission coefficient: T = 2 ZL +Zo

(6)

3. Reflection and Transmission Coefficients

In order to establish an analytical basis for the pulse-echo method for fault diagnosis. a fundamental problem is whether it is possible to deduce the topology and the dimensions of a healthy cable from its pulse-echo response. We will address this question using transmission-line theory.
Generally speaking, when a pulse travels down a cable and is reflected from a discontinuity, the path length of the echo route is shown up by the position (in time) of the echo and the nature of the discontinuity is shown up by the polarity and the magnitude of the echo. The position of an echo is determined by the time of flight given by d
(z-

where ZL is the impedance of the discontinuity. By (2) and ( 3 ) , we have Z, = m,Oand Z, 12 at an open circuit, a short circuit and a tee joint, respectively. The corresponding reflection and transmission coefficients for these discontinuities are summarized in Table 1.

P
I
I

open circuit short circuit tee joint Table 1 Note that the transmission coefficient for an open circuit can be used to explain a voltage doubling effect when i1 pulse is injected into an open end of a cable. (This effect is illustrated by an example to be given in the next section). For a tee joint, the incident pulse is partly reflected with a magnitude equal to one-third that of the incident pulse of reversed polarity, and partly transmitted into the two branches beyond the joint with a magnitude equal to two-thirds that of the incident pulse.

where d is the retum-path length and v = l/m is the velocity of propagation of a pulse through the cable. To determine the magnitude of an echo, we note that the characteristic impedance of a cable is given by

4. All Possible Routes of Echoes

Consider a cable with tee-offs as shown in Fig. 2. Note that all the outgoing paths are labelled by capitals and the return paths by small letters. A pulse transmitted along the path 'A' will be echoed back to the input point after traversing return paths denoted (in an obvious notation) by ' A d , ' A d a ' , 'ABba', 'ACca', 'ABbCca', ... , etc. To pinpoint all possible pulses in the pulse-echo response of a cable, we need a method to generate all possible return paths starting

As the input signal used for diagnostic purpose is a pulse of a very short duration, the frequency of interest is high so that Z , may be approximated as

862

with the alphabet 'A' and ending with 'a' having a total distance, say, less than p. For this purpose, we first write down all possible return paths generated by 'A' and 'a' only. This gives:
'Aa'. 'AuAa', ' A d u A d ,

...

Next, we insert the pair ' B b between an 'A' and an 'a' for the paths generated above to obtain all possible combinations containing only one pair of ' B b . Then we consider inserting a second pair of 'Bb' either after an 'A' or a 'b' in the paths that have been obtained. This process is continued until no further pairs of 'Bb'can be added with the total path length less than p. Then we proceed to add the pair 'Cr' to the paths. Clearly, 'Cc' can be inserted only after the alphabets 'A', 'b' and 'c'. All possible return paths can be generated by continuing the above procedure.

response diagram has been converted into a distance axis (for the pulse-echo return path) according to (3). The positions of occurrences of the echoes within an echo distance of 300 metres can be identified by tracing all possible routes of echoes in the way described above. To start, we see that there are only three routes (i.e. 'Aa', 'AuAa', 'AuAuAa') made up of 'A' and 'a' only and are of total distance < 300m. We then go on to insert one or more ' B b after an 'A' to give 'ABba', 'ABbBba', 'ABbBbBba', 'ABbuAa', 'AaABba' while observing the 300m distance constraint. This process can be continued by inserting 'Cr' to produce all possible routes of echoes with a path length less than 300m and the result (sorted by distance) is given in Table 2. The magnitude of each pulse can be calculated as a product of the appropriate transmission and reflection coefficients according as the types of discontinuities traversed by the pulse along its path. The predicted pulse magnitudes are summarized in Table 2. When comparing the values obtained in Table 2 with the magnitudes of the pulse echoes exhibited in Fig. 3, it should be noted that the injected pulse has a voltage magnitude (= 95) given by twice that of the initial pulse shown in Fig. 3 due the voltage doubling effect discussed in section 3. Pulse positions are measured at the left rising edge. It is observed that the results obtained based on the reflection and transmission coefficients agree well with the simulated response given in Fig. 3. The small undulation at 280m is due to approximation errors in the cable model used for simulation.

FiP 2 We illustrate the results obtained so far by means of an example. A cable with a single tee-joint together with the cable dimensions, the cable parameters and the simulated pulse-echo response are shown in Fig. 3. For ease of reference, the time axis for the pulse

130 m
60 -

I
Cable Parameters:

= 3.25 x

I O 4 Rim
10 Hlm
-20 7

L = 3.12 x

C = 1.4 x 10 "Flm G = 2 . 0 10 * IQm ~

b
-40 I

Echo Distance / m

863

Return Path

Pulse 'osition

Pulse Magnitude

before. Continuing this process, we can deduce the cable topology and its dimensions completely.

Aa ABba AaAa ABbBba & ACra

ABbaAa &AaABba

80 m
140 m

A3 x 95 = -31.7
x * x 9s = 42.2

6. Cable Faults
The method of reflection and the transmission coefficients can be extended to cables with two simple kinds of fault conditions.

160 m

~3 x ~ x 9 10.6 5 =
( $ x ~ x ~ + ~ x ~ x95=28.1 3 3)

200 m
220 m
240 m 260m

6.1 Series Fault

Consider a series fault of impedance Z , at a point P of the cable as shown in Fig. 4. An incoming pulse reaching the point P from the left will see a load impedance of

AaAaAa ABbCca & ACcBba & ABbBbBba ACraAa & AaACca &
AaABbBba & ABbBbaAo & AB baABba

z,
280m

= Z,$ +Z"

The reflection coefficient and the transmission coefficient can be calculated according as ( 5 ) arid (6):

Table 2

P =

zs

z, +2Z"

5. Determination of Cable Dimensions from Pulse-Echo Response

Making use of the results of the last section, we now show that it is possible to determine the topology and the dimensions of a healrhy cable by mecansof an inspection of the positions and the magnitudes of the pulse echoes in the order of their occurrences. First. we note that a healthy cable has only two possible types of discontinuities, namely, an open circuit and a tee joint. If the first pulse has a positive magnitude equal to twice the magnitude of the injected pulse, then the cable is a straight cable of length equal to half the path length travelled by the pulse, and in this case there is nothing more to be done. If the first pulse is negative, then it is reflected from a tee joint and its magnitude should be equal to -2/3 that of the injected pulse and the distance to the tee joint is determined by using (3). We next calculate the magnitudes and positions of all the echoes due to multiple reflections between the input terminal and the tee joint. The calculated echoes are compared with the given pulse-echo response. The first discrepancy indicates a pulse reflected from a new discontinuity not yet known and its location and nature (open circuit or tee joint) can be determined as

Fig. 4

If the incoming pulse has voltage V. then the reflected pulse has magnitude Vr = p V . The voltage of the transmitted pulse before passing through the fault impedance is TV . However, this transmitted pulse will undergo a voltage drop due to the fault impedance, and as a result, the voltage pulse that emerges from the fault has a magnitude given by

v, = z=, 2zo v TV Z S+%, z +2%, ,

(10)

Hence we may define an effec'five transmission coefficient at a series fault to be

864

6.2 Earth Fault

Consider an earth fault with an impedance Z , at a point P of the cable as shown in Fig. 5 . A voltage pulse reaching the point P will see a load impedance

Direct substitution into ( 5 ) and (6) shows that the reflection and the transmission coefficients are given by

dimensions of the cable up to the point of the fault can be deduced. If the topology and the dimensions of the healthy cable are known or can be determined using a good core of the cable, then a direct comparison reveals the location and the nature of the fault. This illustrates how the features in a pulseecho response can be used systematically for the diagnosis of simple types of fault conditions. We are currently conducting an investigation to extend the method to general cases when the fault is less clearcut than a short circuit or an open circuit, or if the fault occurs at a tee joint.

P =

-Z0

22,

+z,

(13)

8. Conclusions
(14) In this paper, we have shown that the position and magnitude of each echo in the pulse response can be determined by direct calculation if the cable topology and dimensions are known. An algorithm is obtained for solving the inverse problem of determining the topology and dimensions of a healthy cable from its pulse-echo response. Hence the pulseecho response of a cable can be taken as a timedomain signature representation which completely characterizes the topology and the dimensions of the cable. We have also analyzed certain kinds of fault conditions by means of reflection and transmission coefficients, with a view towards using these results for fault diagnosis.

5=

22, 22, +zo

If the incoming pulse has voltage V , then the reflected pulse has voltage Vr = pV and the transmitted pulse has voltage V , = TV .

9. References
The above analysis shows that the method of transmission and reflection coefficients can be used to describe the behaviour of a pulse at a series or an earth fault occumng at a point on a straight length of a cable. If the fault occurs at a tee joint, the analysis is more complicated because it becomes necessary to consider how the fault is physically distributed among the branches of the cable at the joint. The method discussed in this paper is still applicable but the details are to lengthy to be presented here.
1. Lee, W.K. and Hung, Y.S. : Cable fault diagnosis using signal processing techniques, Roc. Distribution 2000, vol. 2, pp. 43-48, Sydney, Australia, 199 1.

2. Hung, Y.S. and Lee, W.K. and C.K. Hui : Signature representation of cables by pulse echoes, h o c . 9th Conf. on Electric Power Supply Industry, pp. 245249, Hong Kong, 1992.
3. Cheng, D.K. : Field and Wave Electromagnetics, Addison Wesley, 1989. 4. Clegg. B. and Lord, N.G. : Modern cable-faultlocation methods, hoc. IEE, vol. 122, No. 4, pp. 403-408, 1975.

7. Fault Diagnosis
The results given so far already allow certain types of unambiguous faults (such as a complete short circuit or an open circuit) to be diagnosed. For instance, if a cable contains an open circuit at a point along a straight length of the cable, then its pulseecho response can be analyzed in the same manner as that of a healthy cable, and the topology and

865