A

SEMINAR REPORT
ON

IoT Based Underground Cable Fault Detector

SUBMITTED BY
Sangita Bhikaji Tamboli
ROLL NO: 20160258

Under the guidance of

Prof. Amey Nale

Department of Electrical Engineering

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere
Lonere 402103
2019-2020
 DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
DR.BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY,
LONERE-402103

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar entitled “IoT Based Underground Cable Fault Detector ”
submitted by Sangita Bhikaji Tamboli (20160258) is a record of bona-fide work carried out by her
under my guidance in partial fulfilment the requirement for the award of Degree of B.Tech in
Electrical Engineering of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere in academic
year 2019-20.

Prof. Amey Nale Head of Department

(Seminar guide)
Examiner :
1.
2
 Date:
Place: Lonere, Dist. Raigad.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Words are inadequate to express the overwhelming sense of gratitude & humble regards to my
guide supervisor Prof. Amey Nale of the Department of Electrical Engineering for his constant
motivation support, expert guidance, constant supervision and constructive suggestion for
submission of my progress report of my work “IoT Based Underground Cable Fault Detector”.
I express my gratitude to Prof. Amey Nale of Department of Electrical Engineering for his
invaluable suggestions and constant encouragement all through the project work.
I also thank to my all teaching and non teaching staff for co-operation to the student. This report
would have been impossible if not for the perpetual moral support from my family and friends. I
would like to thank them all.

Sangita Bhikaji Tamboli

ROLL NO : 20160258
 INDEX

SR.NO. TITLES PAGE

 LIST OF FIGURES

SR.NO. FIGURES NAME PAGE

 1.Introduction:
The main function of the electrical power system transmission line is to transfer electrical
energy from the generation unit to the customers. We prefer underground cable instead ofoverhead
for the transmission because the underground cable are not affected by any weather condition like
lightning, high-speed, winds ,earthquake earth tremors , snow , frost etc. But when a fault is occur
at underground cable, it is difficult to find the location of the fault to clear the fault before it
increases the damage to the power system. So we will move to detect the exact location of fault.
Now the world become digitalized so the project is intended to detect the location of fault in digital
way. The underground cable system is more common practice followed in many urban areas.
While fault occurs for some reason, at that time the repairing process related to that particular cable
is difficult due to not knowing the exact location of cable fault.
 Fig.1 Underground Cable Fault
The objective of this seminar is to determine the distance of underground cable fault from base
station in kilometers. While a fault occurs for some reason, at that time the repairing process
related to that particular cable is difficult due to not knowing the exact location of the cable fault.
IoT increased the use of wireless technology to connect power industry assets and infrastructure
in order to lower the power consumption and cost. The goal of IoT is not just only connecting
things such as machines, devices and appliances, but also allowing the things to communicate,
exchanging control data and other necessary information while executing applications. It consists
of IoT devices that have unique identities and are capable of performing remote sensing,
monitoring and actuating tasks.

1.1 METHODOLOGY

Many techniques have been developed in cable line fault detection over the last few
decades. Generally we use overhead lines. It can easily identify the faults but in rushed places or
familiar cities we can’t use overhead lines. So, we are moving to underground cables. In this we
use IoT technology that allows the authorities to monitor and check faults over internet. The system
detects fault with the help of potential divider network laid across the cable. Whenever a fault gets
created at a point shorting two lines together, a specific voltage gets generated as per the resistors
network combination. As the existing system is not efficient ,this propose a system based on IoT.
The objective of this seminar is to determine the distance of underground cable fault from base
station in kilometers using an IoT Gecko platform. The underground cable line system is used in
many urban areas. Various fault locating methods like the sectionalizing methods, acoustic
detection method, Murray loop methods are not used much because they suffer from many
disadvantages. The sectionalizing method can’t be employed because section wise checking of
underground cable is not possible. The acoustic method may become disastrous at the time of rain
and it is a bit cumbersome method too. The Murray loop method is based on the principle of
Wheatstone and due to different resistances of leads There are many electrical, telephone and other
signal cables are laid underground. In normal methods we have to check with the machine where
the fault is occurred .It required lot of time and the workload is also more. In IoT based
underground cable line fault locator whenever a fault is occurring in the cable line we can see the
location in the IoT Gecko online system. Then the admin can inform to the repairman. Many time
faults occur due to construction works and other reasons. It is difficult to dig out cable lines full
because it do not know the exact location of the cable line fault. In case if it is a short circuit , the
voltage across series resistors changes accordingly. This voltage is sensed by the microcontroller
and is updated to the user. The information conveyed to the user is the distance to which that
voltage corresponds to the fault occurring at a particular distance and the respective phase is
displayed on a LCD and also it transfers this data over internet to display online. This is use
ThingSpeak to develop the online system that links with the system to display the cable faults
online. The project is assembled with a set of resistors representing cable length in KM’s and fault
creation is made by a set of switches at every known KM to cross check the accuracy of the same.

1.2 TYPES OF FAULT

Fault in a cable can be classified as:

A) Open circuit fault

B) Short circuit fault

Open Circuit Fault

This type of fault is caused by breaking in conducting path etc. Such fault happens when
one or more phase conductor wire break. The value of current in such fault becomes zero and the
load side gets isolated from the generation side. This fault is less harmful as no current flows .

Short Circuit Fault

When conductors of different phases get connected with each other than such fault comes
under short circuit fault. In this type of fault the value of current increases so it becomes harmful
at the load ends. There are basically 2 types of short circuit fault:-

i. Symmetrical Fault

ii. Unsymmetrical Fault

Symmetrical Fault: the 3-phase fault is called a symmetrical fault. In this, all 3-phases are short-
circuited. In this fault the phase angles are unchanged but the magnitude of the current can vary.

Unsymmetrical Fault: In this fault magnitude of the current is not equal and also not displaced by
120-degree angle. The different phases are short-circuited with each other.

Fault in cable is represented as:

 Any defect
 Inconsistency
 Weakness or non-homogeneity that affects
 performance of cable
Current is diverted from the intended path

1.3 General Overview:

This seminar is to determine the distance of underground cable fault from the base station
in kilometers 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 IOT Technology is used to find out the exact location of the fault and to send data in graphical
format to our website using an IOT module at the same time it display on the LCD screen. This
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 kilometers.

2. Components:
1 . Microcontroller

2 . LCD
3 . Relay Drive

4 . WiFi Module

5 . Transformer

2.1 Microcontroller

Fig 2 . Microcontroller ATMEGA823P

A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. In modern terminology, it is

similar to, but less sophisticated than, a system on a chip or SoC; an SoC may include a
microcontroller as one of its components. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs with
memory and programmable input/output peripherals. We are using 32 pin microcontroller as for
our requirement. In these the 11 pin for LCD, 14 pin for ADC,5 pin for switches and 2 pin for Wi-
Fi. Microcontroller has 64KB external data memory, 64KB program memory and 256 byte internal
data memory. It increases reliability. Hardware is less because of single chip microcontroller .
2.2 LCD

Fig 3 . LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical
device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit
light directly, instead using a backlight or reflector to produce images in colour or monochrome.
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 perpendicular to each
other. Liquid crystal display are interfacing to microcontrollerATMEGA328P. We are using 16*2
liquid crystal display. Here 16*2 represents 16 rows and 2 column.
2.3 Relay Drive

Fig 4. Relay drive

A relay is an automatic device by means of which an electrical circuit is indirectly

controlled and is governed by a change in the same or another electrical circuit.Relay is
a sensing device which senses the fault &send a trip signal to circuit breaker to isolate
the faulty section.A Relay driver IC is an electro-magnetic switch that will be used
whenever we want to use a low voltage circuit to switch a light bulb ON and OFF which
is connected to 220V mains supply. There are various ways to drive relays. Relays are
switches that open and close circuits electromechanically or electronically.
2.4 WiFi Module

Fig. 5 Wifi module

The ESP8266 WIFI module is self contained SOC that can give any microcontroller
access to your wifi network. The ESP8266 each capable of either hosting or
application or off loading or wifi networking function from another application
processor.
 2.5 Transformer

Fig 6. Transformer

Transformer is static device is transfer electrical energy from one circuit to other circuit
with change voltage and current without in change frequency. In this step-down
transformer is use. Usually, DC voltages are required to operate various electronic
equipment. And this voltages are 5v,9v and 12v,but this voltage cannot be obtained
directly. Thus AC input available at the main supply.i.e. 230v is to be brought down the
required voltage level.
3 . Hardware Implementation:

Fig 7 .Hardware implementation

This is proposed model of underground cable fault distance locator using ATMEGA328P . It is
classified in four parts –DC power supply part (230v step down transformer)and cable part,
controlling part, display part. When a supply is applied to the step down transformer, its convert
into low voltage. In the cable part we use a set of resistor along with switches.Current sensing
part are used as fault creators to indicate the fault at each location. This part senses the change
in current by sensing the voltage drop .After that there is a controlling part which consists of
analog to digital converter that receives input signal from the current sensing circuit and
converts this input signal into digital signal and send it to the microcontroller.

The microcontroller also a part of the controlling units and makes a necessary
calculation regarding the distance of the fault. The microcontroller also drives a relay
driver which in turn controls the switching of a set of relays for proper connection of the
cable at each phase.The display part consists of the LCD display interfaced to 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.
If there is no fault in the cable then all the three lines show “OK” on the LCD display.

If there is a fault at line 1 within 2 km then the fisrt line show “2 Km” which is the fault
location and the remaining two lines show “OK” on the LCD display as there is no fault.
If there is fault at all three cables within 2 km then all the three lines show “2 km” on the
LCD display.
Conclusion:

The IoT based underground cable line fault detection system was executed successfully
which makes fault detection very easier.It can clearly determine the location where the
fault is occurred .The repair man only need to dug the place where fault is occurred.
This enables the researchers to detect and locate the faults in underground cable with
the help of IoT Gecko. Hence, the method used in this operates in a sequential manner
and proves to be useful in detection and location of faults in underground cables.
Future Scope :
We can detect both the short circuit and open circuit faults with the help of new
techniques.
References :
www.neonproject.com

www.irjet.net

IoT Based Underground Cable Fault Detection by Sahrdaya College of

Engineering

Nikhil Kumar Sain , Rajesh Kajla and Mr.Vikas Kumar ‘Advanced Research in
Electrical and Electronics Engineering ‘