ELECTRICAL CABLE FAULT DETECTION METHOD IN BUILDING USING NI MULTISIM SOFTWARE

Abstract

It is often difficult to know whether electrical power breakdown at home is due to a faulty cable. When there is a tripping in the Distribution Board (DB), the first move would normally to switch off all of the Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCBs), and then switch on the MCB one-by-one. Once switch on, the fault can be identified by observing at the tripped MCB. Then, the next move is to locate the source of the fault that is connected to the MCB. For a fault that is due to the electrical device connected at the other end of the Switch Socket Outlet (SSO), the fault can easily be identified. However, if the fault is due to the cable, the method to confirm the fault is often difficult to do. Fault detection in the final circuit of a distribution system is always challenging. As compared to the fiber optic cable, the technician or engineer can use a power meter and a light source to detect any cable fault – for short and long distance cables. But for a very long distance fiber optic cable, that is normally more that 1km, Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) can be used. However, for electrical power cable, the detection methods for cable fault are still under-developed. There is rarely any specific equipment to detect the cable fault. Thus, in this paper we developed a very simple method in detecting a cable fault at home and at any small building. This is possible by using few basic electrical devices and computer program called NI Multisim. From this study, three types of cable faults can be simulated such as open circuit, short circuit, and current leakage. The NI Multisim software is able to give us the measurement that could help us interpret the status of the power cable – whether it is faulty.