Welcome to the presentation on Cable

testing and Cable fault location

 Cable Diagnosis
(predictive, non destructive)

Cable Testing
(preventive, destructive)

Cable Fault Locating

(reactive)
Typical Insulation Materials used in Cables

Low Voltage High Voltage High Voltage

PVC PAPER XLPE

PILC
 Screen
Semiconducter

Conductor

Insulation Sheath
XLPE
Facts on Cables
Main Causes of Cable Failure

 External Third Party Damage

 Excavations
 Bad laying of cable
(Stone pressing into the cable)

 Bad workmanship during jointing

 Ageing of Cables
 Paper Cables : Paper is dry
i.e. At hills where the oil impregation
has run downhill from the highest level
 XLPE Cables : Water treeing

Bare Neutral Corrosion

What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Ohmic resistance
Faults
core – core (shunt)
core – shield (shunt)
shield – ground
core – ground
breaks in core or shield
ohmic series faults
flashover faults
penetration of moistre
What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Core-to-core fault (shunt)

Connection or part connection between one core and anorther.
The value of the fault resistance can vary between zero ohms and many
Megohms.
What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Core-to-shield (screen/metallic sheath) – (shunt)

Connection or part connection between one core and anorther and the shield.
The value of the fault resistance can vary between zero ohms and many megohms.
What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Joint

Flashover fault
Such a fault is acting like a spark gap.
This may be several kilovolts up to a maximum that is the accepted d.c. test voltage
for the cable.
What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Break (also called open-circuit or series fault)

The fault can be a clean break in a conductor with an infinite or a very high resistance.
There can also be a dirty break where there is a measureable resistance across the
gap and/or the metal.
A partial break can occur when some of the strands of a conductor are broken or
burnt through.
What is a cable fault?

L1
L2
L3

Shield

Ground contact fault (also called earth fault, sheath fault or serving fault)
When an overall plastic sheath is damaged, ground contact can occur between a metallic
sheath and the mass of earth.
A ground contact can occur between the core of plastic low voltage cables with no
metallic sheath or armour and the mass of earth.
What is a cable fault?

L1 H2O and salt

L2
L3

Shield

H2O and salt

Ingress of moisture
Moisture usually produces a contact fault involving all cores.
The site of the breakdown is often some distance from the point of entry.
Insulation resitance values vary considerably but tend to be of the order of a few kiloohms.
A change of characteristics impedance occurs at the wet section.
The Logical Approach

Fault Notification

LOW HIGH
Fault Diagnosis
Resistance fault Resistance fault

LV Methods of HV Methods of
Pre-Location Pre-Location

Pinpoint
Fault Located? Yes Yes Fault Located? No
Fault Location
No

Fault
Restoration Yes Fault Located?
Conditioning
Fault diagnosis
Step 1 of 3: Continuity test

Fault Notification

?? ??
LOW HIGH
Fault Diagnosis
Resistance fault Resistance fault

First step is to undertake a Continuity Test.

 Use Multimeter as Ohmmeter
 Megger Insulation tester if the instrument has an Ohmmeter capability
 Fault diagnosis
Step 2 of 3: Insulation Test
Second step is to undertake an Insulation Test.
 Use an Insulation tester whose output power will not
change the fault characteristics.

 Beware
On some high voltage insulation testers the lowest measurement range
will not give the required resolution.
I.e., if a fault resistance is less than 5k Ohm, we need a resolution down to
low Ohms, typically 300 Ohms down to 0 Ohms.
If necessary, use a Multimeter or Ohms range on the insulation tester
 Beware
A high voltage insulation test does not confirm that the cable is healthy !
I.e. a 5kV Insulation test will not identify a fault that requires 8kV to breakdown.
Fault diagnosis
Step 3 of 3: DC Insulation / Proof Test
Third step is to undertake a DC Insulation / Proof Test.
 Use a test voltage as defined by your local authorised Engineer.

Why do we undertake a DC Insulation / Proof Test, what are we

looking for ?
 Identify breakdown level of fault.
 Observe behavior of fault.
 Identify level of leakage current:
 Low levels of leakage current indicate a High Resistance
 High levels of leakage current, or draws current immediately,
means the fault is Low Resistance
 A small, short increase of current indicates dirt at the terminations,
which is blown away.
Fault diagnosis
Conclusion
Fault Notification

< 300 Ω
Rf ~ > 300 Ω
Rf ~
LOW HIGH
Fault Diagnosis
Resistance fault Resistance fault

For cable fault location, we distinguish in:

 Parallel Faults:
 Low resistance : Rf ~< 300 Ω
 High resistance: Rf ~> 300 Ω

 Series Faults:
 High resistance: Rf ~> 10 Ω
Next Step in the “Logical Approach”
Fault Prelocation Low Voltage Methods

Fault Notification

< 300 Ω
Rf ~
LOW HIGH
Fault Diagnosis
Resistance fault Resistance fault

LV Methods of Pulse Echo

Pre-Location = TDR
Pulse Echo
Basics
TDR stands for Time Domain Reflectometry.
It is like radar: A pulse is send into the cable.
A change of cable impedance will reflect this pulse.
The time is measured between the transmitted and reflected pulse.

TDR

Pulse from TDR

Reflection, end of cable

Pulses visible on
the screen of the TDR
Propagation velocity and distance

212 m at v/2=80,0 m/µs

199 m at v/2=75,0 m/µs
238 m at v/2=90,0 m/µs

Propagation velocity v/2 (m/µs):

 PILC 80 m/µs (77-82 m/µs)

 PVC 78 m/µs (70-80 m/µs)

 XLPE 85 m/µs (82-86 m/µs)

 mixed line 83 m/µs

 Telecom cable 95 – 120 m/µs

 Overhead line 147,5 m/µs

Reflection factor – Parallel and
series fault resistance

Fault resistance
Fault resistance
Series faults
Parallel faults

Rparallel = 0 Ω Rseries = ∞
Rparallel = 100 Ω Rseries = 100 Ω
Rparallel = 250 Ω Rseries = 10 Ω
Pulse width

Distance
Pulse width Time distance
( V/2 = 80 m/µs or NVP = 0.533)

100 ns Up to 6.25 µs Up to 500 m

200 ns 6.25 µs … 31.25 500 m … 2,5 km
µs
500 ns 31.25 µs … 93,75 2,5 km … 7,5 km
µs
1 µs 93,75 µs … 375 µs 7,5 km … 30 km
2 µs 375 µs … 750 µs 30 km … 60 km
5 µs 750 µs … 2 ms 60 km … 160 km
Typical reflections

Cable without fault

RF Parallel fault

RF Short

RF Series fault

Break, ,open end

Joint
Fault Prelocation High Voltage Methods
Fault Notification

Rf > 300 Ω
LOW HIGH
Fault Diagnosis
Resistance fault Resistance fault

LV Methods of HV Methods of
Pre-Location Pre-Location
=

=
Pulse Echo
TDR Arc Reflection
Arc Reflection Plus

=
Impulse Current

=
Voltage Decay
Voltage Decay Plus
Arc Reflection

Arc stabilisation unit

Surge generator HV Impulse

Filter

Pulse echo

MTDR
Arc Reflection
Typical Traces

Reference Trace

+
Arc present

=
Comparison
Fault distance
Trace selection

28
 Test Setup ICE (Impulse Current Equipment)

SWG
surge wave generator
Faulty cable

Teleflex
Reflecto-
meter consider length of
cable reel !

ICE - Mode
0.00 m
1957 m

first period
and ignition
delay time
 Field Test
Field tests

ICE
Automatic
Fault location
and the manual
correction
Test Setup Decay Method

Teleflex
Reflecto- Travelling wave display
meter

Faulty cable
Coupling
DC Unit
Tester

consider length of
cable reel !
Comparison of basic HV-Prelocating Methods
ARM
• most common HV-fault
locating method
• most details visible (joints,
cable end, ...)
• up to SWG-voltage
(typically 32 kV)
• connecting cable
automatically subtracted
• set TDR range to cable
length
ICE Impulse Current
• good for long lead cables and
faults in wet joints
• up to SWG-voltage
(typically 32 kV)
• set TDR range to 5 or 10 times
cable length
• measure length of one period
• don‘t consider first period
(includes ignition delay time)
• measured length may be
7 to 15 % higher due to varying
v/2, depending on pulse ignition
and shape
• subtract connecting cable
Decay
• good for HV-fault locating at
higher voltages (Centrix up to
80 kV, Classic up to 130 kV)
• faulty cable has to be
“chargeable”, failing with a
flash-over. Leakage current
faults cannot be located
• set TDR range to 5 or 10
times cable length
• measure length of one period
• subtract connecting cable
 Any
Questions?
 Pinpointing

Zuverlässige Versorgung –
Pinpointing
heute und morgen
Acoustic Method
Digiphone

© 2011 SebaKMT – all rights reserved – SEM//Acoustic method

Digiphone

Power Products, (c) SebaKMT 2012, all rights reserved 35

 CI

Zuverlässige Versorgung –
Cable
heute Identification
und morgen (CI)

© 2011 SebaKMT – all rights reserved – SEM//Acoustic method

Purpose

Safe Selection of one cable from a group

of cables Online or Offline

37
 Selection

100 %

+ 40 % 60 %

10 %

- 20 % 10 %

10 %

- 20 % 10 %

CI - Cable Identifier, (c) SebaKMT 2012, all rights reserved 38

Cable Diagnosis, Test, Fault Locating
… comes in many sizes …