UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT

DETECTOR

Project Report

submitted by

PREMKUMAR M
(III-MCT– 1915408)

AJITHKUMARAN D
(III-ECE-B – 1445013)

TAMILARASAN R
(II-IT-B – 2021202)

VARSHINI C
(II-IT-B – 2021207)

for

50 EC L01 – Internet of Things (IoT) – Open Elective

2021 – 2022 (Even Semester)

K.S.RANGASAMY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY TIRUCHENGODE –

637 215
(An Autonomous Institution, Affiliated to Anna University Chennai and Approved by AICTE, New Delhi)

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 K.S.RANGASAMY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
TIRUCHENGODE – 637 215
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report titled “UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR” is the
bonafide work of PREMKUMART M (1915408), AJITHKUMARAN D(1915401),TAMILARASAN R
(2021202,) VARSHINI C(2021207)who carried out the project under my supervision. Certified further,
that to the best of my knowledge the work reported herein does not form part of any other project
report or dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred on an earlier occasion on
this or any other candidate.

SIGNATURE

Mr.T. PRABU

SUPERVISOR

Assistant Professor Dept. of Electronics

and Communication Engineering

K.S. Rangasamy College

of Technology - Tiruchengode-637 21

Submitted for the viva-voce examination held on ……………

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNALEXAMINER

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 ABSTRACT

The main objective of this project is to detect the faults and

abnormalities occurring in underground cables using an Arduino.
The basic idea behind the working of this project is ohms’s law
.At the feeder end ,when a DC voltage is applied, based on the
location of fault in the cable ,the value of current also changes. So
in case of a short circuit fault like L-G or L-L fault the change in
voltage value measured across the resistor is then fed to the in-
built ADC of the Arduino.
This value is processed by the Arduino and the fault is
calculated in terms of distance from the base station. This value is
sent to the LCD interfaced to the Arduino board and it displays
exact location of the fault from the base station in kilometers for
all the three phases.
This project is arranged with a set of resistors which represent the
length of the cable. At every known kilometer fault switches are
placed to induce faults manually. Finally the fault distance can be
determined.

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 LIST OF TABLES

CHAPTER TITLE Page No.

INDEX PAGE 1

ABSTRACT 3

LIST OF TABLES 4

1 INTRODUCTION 6

2 LITERATURE SURVEY 7

3 FAULTS IN UNDERGROUND 8
3.1 OPEN CIRCUIT FAULTS 8

3.2 SHORT CIRCUIT FALTS 8

4 FAULT DETECTION METHODS 9

4.1.ONLINE METHOD
4.2.OFFLINE METHOD 9
4.3.TRACER METHOD
9
4.4TERMINAL METHOD 10

5 PROPOSED SYSTEM 10

6 BLOCK DIAGRAM 11

7 HARDWARE KIT 11

8 HARDWARES AND SOFTWARE 11

8.1.NOUDEMCU DEVELOPMENT BOARD/ KIT
V1.0(VERSION2) 13
8.1.1.INTRODUCTION
14
8.1.2.PINS
14
8.2.BUZZER
8.3.LCD 15
8.3.1 OVERVIEW
8.3.2.SPECIFACTIONS
4
 8.4.ESP8266 18
8.5.TRASFOMER
8.5.1.INDUCTION LAW 19
8.5.2.CLASSIFICATION 20
8.6.SWETCH
20
8.7.REGULATOR
22

9.ADVANTAGES 24

10.CONCLUSIONS 24

11. FUCTURE SCOPE 24

12.REFERENCE 25

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1.INTRODUCTION
An bundle of electrical conductors used for carrying electricity
is called as a cable. An underground cable generally has one or more
conductors covered with suitable insulation and a protective cover.
Commonly used materials for insulation are varnished cambric or
impregnated paper.
Fault in a cable can be any defect or non-homogeneity that
diverts the path of current or affects the performance of the cable. So
it is necessary to correct the fault. Power Transmission can be done in
both overhead as well as in underground cables. But unlike
underground cables the overhead cables have the drawback of being
easily prone to the effects of rainfall, snow, thunder, lightning etc.
This requires cables with reliability, increased safety,
ruggedness and greater service. So underground cables are preferred
in many areas specially in urban places.
When it is easy to detect and correct the faults in over head line
by mere observation, it is not possible to do so in an underground
cable .As they are buried deep in the soil it is not easy to detect the
abnormalities in them. Even when a fault is found to be present it is
very difficult to detect the exact location of the fault.
This leads to dragging of the entire area to detect and correct the
fault which in turn causes wastage of money and manpower. So it is
necessary to know the exact location of faults in the underground
cables. Whatever the fault is, the voltage of the cable has the tendency
to change abruptly whenever a fault occurs. We make use of this
voltage change across the series resistors to detect the fault.

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2.LITERATURE SURVEY

Presented Design & Implementation Of Fault Identification In

Underground Cables Using IOT .

This project is to determine the distance of underground cable fault from the
base station in kilometres and displayed over the internet. Underground cable
system is a common followed in major areas in Metro cities. While a fault occurs
for some reason, at that time the fixing process related to that particular cable is
difficult due to exact unknown location of the fault in the cable.
This Technology is used to find out the exact location of the fault and to send
data in graphical format to our website using a GSM module at the same time it
display on the LCD screen.
The project uses the standard theory 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 fault in the cable as the
resistance is proportional to the distance. In case there is a short circuit (Line to
Ground), the voltage across series resistors changes according to the resistance that
changes with distance .
This is then fed to an ADC to develop precise digital data which the
programmed microcontroller of the 8051 family displays in

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3.FAULTS IN UNDERGROUND
3.1 OPEN CIRCUIT FAULTS
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
3.2 SHORT CIRCUIT FAULTS
A short circuit can be defined as an abnormal connection of
very low impedance between two points of different potential,
whether made intentionally or accidentally. These are the most
common and severe kind of faults, resulting in the flow of
abnormal high currents through the equipment or transmission
lines. If these faults are allowed to persist even for a short period,
it leads to the extensive damage to the equipment. Short circuit
faults are also called as shunt faults. These faults are caused due to
the insulation failure between phase conductors or between earth
and phase conductors or both.
The various possible short circuit fault conditions include
three phase to earth, phase to phase, single phase to earth, two
phase to earth and phase to phase .In single line to ground fault,
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fault occurs between any one of the three lines and the ground. In
double line to ground fault, fault occurs between any two of the
three lines and the ground. In line to line fault, fault occurs
between any two lines.
When fault occurs there is an abrupt change in voltage. This
change in voltage may cause serious damages to the system if not
corrected in time. So immediate step of fault correction is isolation
of the faulty part from the rest of the system.
4.FAULT DETECTION METHODS
4.1 ONLINE METHOD
This method utilizes and processes the sampled voltages and
current to determine the fault points. Online method for
underground cable are less common than overhead lines.
4.2 OFFLINE METHOD
In this method special instrument is used to test out service of
cable in the field. This offline method can be divided into two
methods .They are tracer method and terminal method.
4.3. TRACER METHOD
In this method fault point is detected by walking on the cable
lines. Fault point is indicated from audible signal or
electromagnetic signal. It is used to pinpoint fault location very
accurately.
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4.4 TERMINAL METHOD
It is a technique used to detect fault location of cable from
one or both ends without tracing. This method use to locate
general area of fault, to expedite tracing on buried cable.
5.PROPOSED SYSTEM
The circuit consists of a power supply, 4 line display, Arduino
and resistance measurement circuit. To induce faults manually in
the kit ,fault switches are used. About 12 fault switches are used
which are arranged in three rows with each row having 4 switches
.The 3 rows represent the 3 phases namely R,Y and B. The fault
switches have 2 positions-No fault position(NF) and fault
position(F).Main component of the underground cable fault
detection circuit is low value resistance measurement. It is
constructed using a constant current source of 100mAmps. It can
measure very low value resistance as the cables have around 0.01
Ohm/meter resistance. For 10meter cable resistance becomes 0.1
Ohm. This circuit can measure resistance up 50 Ohm.
These 4 sets of resistances represent the three phases and the
neutral. Short circuit faults, Symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults
can be determined by this method.
This project uses three set of resistances in series (ie)R10-R11-
R12-R12,R17-R16-R14R21,R20-R19-R18- R25 one for each
phase. Each series resistor represents the resistance of the
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underground cable for a particular distance and so here four
resistances in series represent 1-4kms.Value of each resistance is
10kΩ.
6.BLOCK DIAGRAM

NodeMCU Development
Board/kit v1.0 (Version2)

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 7.HARDWARE KIT

8.HARDWARE AND SOFTWARES

 NodeMCU Development Board/kit v1.0 (Version2)
 Buzzer
 ESP8266
 LCD
 TRANSFORMER
 Blynk colud platform
 SWETCH
 REGULATOR
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8.1.NODEMCU DEVELOPMENT BOARD/KIT V1.0 (VERSION2)

8.1.1.Introduction :

NodeMCU is an open source LUA based firmware developed for

ESP8266 wifi chip. By exploring functionality with ESP8266 chip,
NodeMCU firmware comes with ESP8266 Development board/kit i.e.
NodeMCU Development board.

NodeMCU Development Board/kit v1.0 (Version2)

NodeMCU Dev Kit has Arduino like Analog (i.e. A0) and Digital (D0-D8) pins on
its board.

It supports serial communication protocols i.e. UART, SPI, I2C etc.

Using such serial protocols we can connect it with serial devices like I2C enabled
LCD display, Magnetometer HMC5883, MPU-6050 Gyro meter + Accelerometer,
RTC chips, GPS modules, touch screen displays, SD cards etc.

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8.1.2.Pins

NodeMCU provides access to the GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) and a pin mapping table is part
of the API documentation.

I/O index ESP8266 pin

0 [*] GPIO16

1 GPIO5

2 GPIO4

3 GPIO0

4 GPIO2

5 GPIO14

6 GPIO12

7 GPIO13

8 GPIO15

9 GPIO3

10 GPIO1

11 GPIO9

12 GPIO10

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8.2. Buzzer

A buzzer or beeper is an audio signalling device, which may

be mechanical, electromechanical, or piezoelectric. Typical uses of buzzers and
beepers include alarm devices, timers and confirmation of user input such as a
mouse click or keystroke.

This novel buzzer circuit uses a relay in series with a small audio transformer and
speaker. When the switch is pressed, the relay will operate via the transformer
primary and closed relay contact. As soon as the relay operates the normally closed
contact will open, removing power from the relay, the contacts close and the
sequence repeats, all very quickly...so fast that the pulse of current causes
fluctuations in the transformer primary, and hence secondary. The speakers tone is
thus proportional to relay operating frequency. The capacitor C can be used to
"tune" the note. The nominal value is 0.001uF, increasing capacitance lowers the
buzzers tone.
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8.3.LCD

A liquid crystal display (commonly abbreviated LCD) is a thin, flat display device
made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or
reflector. It is often utilized in battery-powered electronic devices because it uses very small
amounts of electric power.

8.3.1Overview

Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned

between two transparent electrodes, and two polarizing filters, the axes of
transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. With
no liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter
would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer.

The surfaces of the electrodes that are in contact with the liquid crystal
material are treated so as to align the liquid crystal molecules in a particular
direction. This treatment typically consists of a thin polymer layer that is

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unidirectionally rubbed using, for example, a cloth. The direction of the liquid
crystal alignment is then defined by the direction of rubbing.

8.3.2SPECIFICATIONS

Important factors to consider when evaluating an LCD monitor:

 Resolution: The horizontal and vertical size expressed in pixels (e.g., 1024x768).
Unlike CRT monitors, LCD monitors have a native-supported resolution for best display
effect.
 Dot pitch: The distance between the centers of two adjacent pixels. The smaller the dot
pitch size, the less granularity is present, resulting in a sharper image. Dot pitch may be
the same both vertically and horizontally, or different (less common).
 Viewable size: The size of an LCD panel measured on the diagonal (more specifically
known as active display area).
 Response time: The minimum time necessary to change a pixel's color or brightness.
 Matrix type: Active or Passive
 Viewing angle: (coll., more specifically known as viewing direction).
 Color support: How many types of colors are supported (coll., more
specifically known as color gamut).
 Brightness: The amount of light emitted from the display (coll., more
specifically known as luminance).
 Contrast ratio: The ratio of the intensity of the brightest bright to the darkest
dark.
 Aspect ratio: The ratio of the width to the height (for example, 4:3, 16:9 or
16:10).Input ports (e.g., DVI, VGA, LVDS, or even S-Video and HDMI).

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8.4. ESP8266

The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with built-in TCP/IP

networking software, and microcontroller capability, produced by Espressif
Systems[1] in Shanghai, China.
The chip was popularized in the English-speaking maker community in
August 2014 via the ESP-01 module, made by a third-party manufacturer Ai-
Thinker.
This small module allows microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and
make simple TCP/IP connections using Hayes-style commands. However, at first,
there was almost no English-language documentation on the chip and the
commands it accepted.
The very low price and the fact that there were very few external components
on the module, which suggested that it could eventually be very inexpensive in
volume, attracted many hackers to explore the module, the chip, and the software
on it, as well as to translate the Chinese documentation. [3]
The ESP8285 is a similar chip with a built-in 1 MiB flash memory, allowing
the design of single-chip devices capable of connecting via Wi-Fi.[4]
These microcontroller chips have been succeeded by the ESP32 family of devices.

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8.5. TRANSFORMER:
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to
another through inductively coupled wires. A changing current in the first circuit
(the primary) creates a changing magnetic field; in turn, this magnetic field induces
a changing voltage in the second circuit (the secondary). By adding a load to the
secondary circuit, one can make current flow in the transformer, thus transferring
energy from one circuit to the other. The secondary induced voltage V S is scaled
from the primary VP by a factor ideally equal to the ratio of the number of turns of
wire in their respective windings:

By appropriate selection of the numbers of turns, a transformer thus allows an

alternating voltage to be stepped up — by making NS more than NP or stepped
down, by making it less.

A key application of transformers is to reduce the current before transmitting

electrical energy over long distances through wires. Most wires have resistance and
so dissipate electrical energy at a rate proportional to the square of the current
through the wire. By transforming electrical power to a high-voltage, and therefore
low-current form for transmission and back again afterwards, transformers enable
the economic transmission of power over long distances. Consequently,
transformers have shaped the electricity supply industry, permitting generation to
be located remotely from points of demand.
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 All but a fraction of the world's electrical power has passed through a series
of transformers by the time it reaches the consumer.

Transformers are some of the most efficient electrical 'machines', with some
large units able to transfer 99.75% of their input power to their output.

secondary coil as well as the primary coil.

8.5.1.INDUCTION LAW:

The voltage induced across the secondary coil may be calculated from Faraday's law of
induction, which states that

8.5.2.CLASSIFICATION

The many uses to which transformers are put lead them to be classified in a
number of different ways:
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  By power level: from a fraction of a volt-ampere (VA) to over a thousand
MVA;
 By frequency range: power-, audio-, or radio frequency;
 By voltage class: from a few volts to hundreds of kilovolts;
 By cooling type: air cooled, oil filled, fan cooled, or water cooled;
 By application function: such as power supply, impedance matching, output
voltage and current stabilizer, or circuit isolation;
 By end purpose: distribution, rectifier, arc furnace, amplifier output;
 By winding turns ratio: step-up, step-down, isolating (near equal ratio),
variable.

8.6. SWETCH
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can
break an electrical circuit, interrupting the current or diverting it from one
conductor to another. The mechanism of a switch may be operated directly by a
human operator to control a circuit (for example, a light switch or a keyboard
button), may be operated by a moving object such as a door-operated switch, or
may be operated by some sensing element for pressure, temperature or flow.
A relay is a switch that is operated by electricity. Switches are made to handle a
wide range of voltages and currents; very large switches may be used to isolate
high-voltage circuits in electrical substations.

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8.7.REGULATOR

A regulated power supply is very much essential for several electronic

devices due to the semiconductor material employed in them have a fixed rate of
current as well as voltage. The device may get damaged if there is any deviation
from the fixed rate. The AC power supply gets converted into constant DC by this
circuit. By the help of a voltage regulator DC, unregulated output will be fixed to a
constant voltage. The circuit is made up of linear voltage regulator 7805 along with
capacitors and resistors with bridge rectifier made up from diodes. From giving an
unchanging voltage supply to building confident that output reaches uninterrupted
to the appliance, the diodes along with capacitors handle elevated efficient signal
conveyed.
As we have previously talked about that regulated power supply is a device that

mechanized on DC voltages and also it can uphold its output accurately at a fixed

voltage all the time although if there is a significant alteration in the DC input

voltage.

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 ICs regulator is mainly used in the circuit to maintain the exact voltage which

is followed by the power supply. A regulator is mainly employed with the

capacitor connected in parallel to the input terminal and the output terminal of the

IC regulator. For the checking of gigantic alterations in the input as well as in the

output filter, capacitors are used. While the bypass capacitors are used to check the

small period spikes on the input and output level. Bypass capacitors are mainly of

small values that are used to bypass the small period pulses straightly into the

Earth. A circuit diagram having regulator IC and all the above discussed

components arrangement revealed in the figure below.

IC 7805 is a DC regulated IC of 5V. This IC is very flexible and is widely

employed in all types of circuit like a voltage regulator. It is a three terminal device
and mainly called input, output and ground. Pin diagram of the IC 7805 is shown in
the diagram below.

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9.ADVANTAGES
Less maintenance
It has higer efficiency
Less fault occur in underground cable
This method is applicable to all types of cable form ranging from 1kv to
500kv
It can detect other types of cable fault such as Short circuit fault, cable
cuts, Resistive fault, Sheath faults, Water trees, Partial discharges.

10.CONCLUSIONS

Thus the project on Underground cable fault detection using Arduino was
done and the distance of the fault from the base station in kilometers was displayed
for the three individual phases R,Y and B. Circuit can be tested with different
resistor values to simulate various fault conditions In this project faults upto a
distance of 4km can be detected. When the fault switches are operated to fault
condition then the phase corresponding to that particular switch is considered as
the faulty phase. So the faulty section can easily be located.

11. FUTURE SCOPE

In this project we detect the exact location of short circuit fault in the
underground cable from feeder end in km by using arduino. In future, this project
can be implemented to calculate the impedance by using a capacitor in an AC
circuit and thus measure the open circuit fault

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12. REFERENCES

[1] R. Saravana Kumar, K. Vinoth Kumar, Dr. K.K. Ray, Fuzzy logic based
fault detection in induction machine using Labview, IJCSNS International Journal
of Computer Science and Network Security, 9(9), September 2009. [2] Penman J.,
Sedding, H.G, Lloyd, B.A. and Fink, W.T (1994), Detection & Location of
Interturn Short Circuit in the Stator Winding of Operating Motor, IEEE
Transection on Energy Conversion, 9, 652–658. [3] Spectrum analysis basics-
Agilent technologies, http://Cp.litreture.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5952- 0902 pdf. [4]
Anant G. Kulkarni1, Dr. Manoj Jha, Dr. M. F. Qureshi, Simulation of Fault
Diagnosis of Induction Motor Based on Spectral Analysis of Stator Current Signal
Using Fast Fourier Transform, IJSET International Journal of Innovative Science,
Engineering & Technology, 1(4), June-2014,

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