Available online at www.ijsrnsc.org Int. J. Sc. Res.

in
Network Security
IJSRNSC and Communication
Volume-8, Issue-1, February 2020
www.ijsrnsc.org Technical Paper E-ISSN:2321-3256

Underground Cable Fault Detection System by Using IoT

Neha N. Badwaik1*, Achal J. Wakade2 , Sudha Shrikanth3

1
Department of Electrical Engineering KDK College of Engineering, RTMNU, Nagpur, India
2
Department of Electrical Engineering KDK College of Engineering, RTMNU, Nagpur, India
3
Department of Electrical Engineering KDK College of Engineering, RTMNU, Nagpur, India
*
Corresponding Author: nbadwaik08@gmail.com, Mo.no.-7798234464
Received: 15/Feb/2020, Accepted: 03/Feb/2020, Published: 28/Feb/2020
Abstract- The objective of this paper is to determine the location of the fault in underground cable lines from the
source station to the exact location of the fault in kilometers. Whenever a fault occurs in the underground cable line for
some reason, the repairing process relating to that faulted cable becomes difficult owing to the lack of a proper system
for tracking the exact fault location and the type of fault that occurred in the cable. For this, a system has to be
developed to find the exact location of the fault in the distribution system for all the three phases R, Y & B for a
different type of situations of faults. Here in this paper single line to ground, double line to ground & three-phase faults
have been considered. Therefore, the basic concept of Ohm’s law is found suitable in principle to develop a fault
location tracking system. Based on the Ohm’s Law, it is found that the resistance of the cable is proportional to its
length under constant conditions of temperature and the cross-section area and therefore if a low DC voltage is applied
at the feeder end through a series of resistor in cable lines, the current would vary depending upon the location of a
fault in the cable. Whenever the fault occurs in the underground cable it is difficult to detect the accurate location of the
fault for the process of repairing that particular cable. The proposed system finds the exact location of the fault. The
fault occurring distance, phase, and time are displayed on a 16X2 LCD interfaced with the microcontroller. IoT is used
to display the information over the Internet using the Wi-Fi module ESP8266.

Keywords- Underground cable system, fault detection circuit, Ohm's law, Atmega16 microcontroller, location method,
IoT WiFi module
I. INTRODUCTION of the cable. The single line fault can be checked by
Megger. For this purpose, the three conductors of the
In the urban areas, the electrical cable runs underground 3-core cable at the far end are shorted and earthed.
instead of overhead lines. Whenever the fault occurs in Then resistance between each conductor and earth is
the underground cable it is difficult to detect the exact measured by a megger. The megger will indicate
location of the fault for the process of repairing that zero resistance in the circuit of the conductor that is
particular cable. The proposed system detects the exact not broken. However, if the conductor is broken, the
location of the fault and by the means of Wi-Fi modem megger will indicate infinite resistance in its circuit.
its serially communicated towards the server. Since the • The line to line fault: When two conductors of a
problem that occurs in underground cables is a big multi-core cable come in electrical contact with each
problem till now. As it is very difficult to find the exact other due to insulation failure, it is called line to line
location of the fault location manually, which suddenly fault. The two terminals of the megger are connected
affects the efficiency of the cable wire due to the losses to any two conductors. If the megger gives zero
occurred. Till now many techniques had already been reading, it indicates a line to line fault between these
implemented in order to detect the fault in cable wire. two conductors. The same step can be repeated for
But the problem came up is how to detect the fault in other conductors taking two at a time.
cable wire when it is underground, and how to access or • Earth fault: When the conductor of the cable comes
retrieve those data related to faulty location whenever it in contact with the earth, it is called earth fault or
is required. In order to fill those gaps, we proposed the ground fault. To identify this fault, one terminal of
system which detects the exact location of the fault and the megger is connected to the conductor and the
through the means of Wi-Fi modem its serially other terminal connected to the earth. If the megger
communicated towards the server. indicates zero reading, it means the conductor is
earthed. The same procedure is repeated for other
Various faults in cables conductors of the cable. This project is used to detect
• Single line fault: When there is a break in the the location of the fault in a digital way. Locating the
conductor of the cable, it is called a single line fault faulty point in an underground cable helps to

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 Int. J. Sci. Res. in Network Security and Communication Vol.8(1), Feb 2020

facilitate quicker repair, improve the system and makes necessary calculations regarding the distance
reliability and reduced outage period. of the fault. The microcontroller also drives a relay driver
which in turn controls the switching of a set of relays for
II. EXPERIMENTAL proper connection of the cable at each phase. The display
part consists of the LCD display interfaced with 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.
HARDWARE COMPONENTS

 ATmega 16 IC
 IoT Module ESP8266
 7805 IC
 LCD Display
 Resistors, Capacitors, miscellaneous
components like Cables, Connectors, diodes,
LED, switch, potentiometer.

Fig. no. 1: Block diagram of the system SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

 Proteus 8
 AVR Studio 4
The proposed system is an IoT enabled
underground cable fault detection system. The basic
principle behind the system is Ohm’s law. When the fault
occurs in the cable, the voltage varies which is used to
calculate the fault distance. The system consists of a Wi-
Fi module, Microcontroller, and Real-Time Clock. The
block diagram of the fault detection system is shown in
Figure 2. The power supply is provided using a step-
down transformer, rectifier, and regulator. The current
sensing circuit of the cable provides the magnitude of the
voltage drop across the resistors to the micro-controller
and based on the voltage the fault distance is located. Fig no.2: WiFi Module
The project uses the simple concept of Ohms law ESP8266 WiFi Module is a self-contained SOC with
where a low DC voltage is applied at the feeder end integrated TCP/IP protocol stack that can give any
through a series resistor. The current would vary microcontroller access to your WiFi network. The
depending upon the length of the fault of the cable in ESP8266 is capable of either hosting an application or
case there is a short circuit of LL or 3L or LG etc. The offloading all Wi-Fi networking functions from another
series resistor voltage drop changes accordingly which application processor. Each ESP8266 module comes pre-
are then fed to an ADC to develop precise digital data in programmed with an AT command set firmware,
which the programmed micro-controller would display meaning, you can simply hook this up to your Arduino
the same. This is a proposed model of an underground device and get about as much WiFi ability as a WiFi
cable fault distance locator using a micro-controller. It is Shield offers (and that just out of the box) The ESP8266
classified into four parts DC power supply part, cable module is an extremely cost-effective board with a huge,
part, controlling part, display part. DC power supply part and ever-growing, community. This module has a
consist of an ac supply of 230V is step down using a powerful enough on-board processing and storage
transformer, bridge rectifier converts ac signal to DC and capability that allows it to be integrated with the sensors
the regulator is used to produce constant dc voltage. The and other application-specific devices through its GPIOs
cable part is denoted by a set of resistors along with with minimal development up-front and minimal loading
switches. The current sensing part of cable represented as during run time. Its high degree of on-chip integration
a set of Potentiometer are used as fault creators to allows for minimal external circuitry, including the front-
indicate the fault at each location. This part senses the end module, which is designed to occupy minimal PCB
change in current by sensing the voltage drop. Next is the area. The ESP8266 supports APSD for VoIP applications
controlling part which consists of analog to digital and Bluetooth co-existence interfaces, it contains a self-
converter which receives input from the current sensing calibrated RF allowing it to work under all operating
circuit, converts this voltage into a digital signal and conditions and requires no external RF parts.
feeds the microcontroller with the signal. The
microcontroller also forms part of the controlling unit

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 Int. J. Sci. Res. in Network Security and Communication Vol.8(1), Feb 2020

Fig.no.3:Hardware Module
Proteus circuit description:-
Various components used in the system are basically a
current potentiometer, ATmega16, Wi-Fi modem, LCD
display. The potentiometer is used for varying resistance Fig. No.3: Proteus simulation circuit
of the cable. Here we have used ATmega16. ATmega16
will receive the input from the optocoupler and according III. CONCLUSION
to it, the controller circuit will perform some set In this work, a simplified method is proposed for
operations like displaying of data in LCD display which detecting the location of cable faults in the underground
is interfaced with it or serially communicating the real- area. We discover the position or location of faults and
time data through Tx pin of the microcontroller. Wi-Fi also find the accurate distance from the breaker point.
module acts as a medium that connects any of the The line to line, single line, line to ground fault in the
physically assembled systems with the internet and underground cable is located using simple concepts of
transmits the data in the server. The wiFi module which Ohms law to rectify the fault efficiently. The work
is usually interfaced with ATmega16 is ESP8266. Now automatically displays the phase and the exact location of
coming to its pin configurations, it consists of 8 pins but fault with the help of ATmega16, microcontroller and
the pins which are actually used are Tx pin, Rx pin, ESP8266 Wi-Fi module, on a web page. The benefits of
CHPD pin, Vcc, Gnd. CHPD is the enable pin which is accurate location of fault are, fast repair so as to revive
an active-high pin and by giving input HIGH it enables back the power system, improvement in the system
Wi-Fi and connects the system with the internet and any performance, reduction in the operating expense and
of the sensed values can be serially transmitted to the reduced time needed to locate the fault in the field.
server. LCD display used here is 20X 4 which is a flat
panel display which uses a group of LED and writes the IV. REFERENCES
sensed value in its display screen and in the circuitry
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AUTHOR PROFILE

Ms. N. N. BADWAIK was born in

Nagpur, India, in 1998. She is seeking a
B.E. degree in electrical design from the
University of Nagpur, India. She has
published research papers in a reputed
international journal. His current
research interests include power
electronics, electrical power systems,
automation, electrical machines, and
drives.

Ms. A. J. WAKADE was born in

Nagpur, India, in 1998. She is seeking a
B.E. degree in electrical design from the
University of Nagpur, India. She has
published research papers in a reputed
international journal. He was the
recipient of the Mayer Innovation Award
in 2019. His current research interests
include power electronics, electrical
power systems, automation, electrical machines, and drives.

Dr. SUDHA SHRIKANTH Asso. Prof.,

Department of Electrical Engineering, K.
D. K. College of Engineering, Nagpur,
Maharashtra, India. Currently working
as an Associate professor in the
Department of Electrical Engineering.
she completed a PhD. in Electrical
Engineering with around 30 years of
teaching and research experience. Published several papers in
National/International Journals and conferences. Areas of
Research interest include Power System Protection, AI
applications in Power Systems, Power System restructuring,
Smart Grid Technology and Data Science.

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