Non-Conductor-Contact Surface Wave Reflectometry for Cable Insulation Damage Detection

This paper presents a non-conductor-contact surface wave-based reflectometry technique to detect and locate missing or damaged insulation and/or jacket of electrical cables. The described sensor may be uniquely and practically implemented on live cables as a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE sensors journal 2022-06, Vol.22 (11), p.11065-11074
Main Authors: Arman, Ahmed S., Glass, Samuel W., Fifield, Leonard S., Ali, Mohammod
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Broadband
Cable shielding
Cables
Circuit faults
Conductors
Damage detection
Electric cables
Electric contacts
Insulation
insulation damage
jacket damage
missing insulation
Non-conductor-contact
non-destructive evaluation (NDE)
non-intrusive
Nondestructive testing
Power cables
Reflectometry
Sensors
surface wave
Surface waves
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Summary:This paper presents a non-conductor-contact surface wave-based reflectometry technique to detect and locate missing or damaged insulation and/or jacket of electrical cables. The described sensor may be uniquely and practically implemented on live cables as a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method since it may be applied to the outer insulation/jacket of a cable and requires no direct contact to the conductor. The innovation lies in a high-frequency surface wave launcher that can introduce broadband signals in the GHz frequencies that insure maximum electromagnetic (EM) energy localization within the insulation and/or jacket material. By further processing the reflection data in the frequency domain, the location and severity of insulation damage is detected. Simulated results of thin, thick, short, and long cables show the results expected from small, medium, and large damage regions. For example, the detection of 40 mm-long damage region at 40 m distance on a 50 m long cable (2.44 cm diameter) is demonstrated. Experimental results are presented that validate simulation findings.
ISSN:1530-437X
1558-1748
DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2022.3167609