The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 12, 1989
Filed:
Jul. 07, 1988
Matthew S Mashikian, Storrs, CT (US);
Robert B Northop, Chaplin, CT (US);
Rajeev Bansal, Willington, CT (US);
Chrysostomos L Nikias, Needham, MA (US);
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus of detecting the locations of incipient faults in an insulated power line which comprises the method steps of opening one end of the power line, if it is not suitably terminated to reflect high frequency pulses, applying an excitation voltage to the other end of the power line at an excitation point, detecting a first high frequency pulse produced by a discharge in the power line and transmitted on the power line to the excitation point, detecting a first reflection of the pulse from the open end of the power line to the point of excitation, detecting the travel time of a reflection of the first pulse from the excitation point to the open end of the power line and return to the excitation point, and dividing the time between the detection of the first pulse and the first reflected pulse by the detected travel time. The invention also provides a method and means for only detecting discharge pulses which occur in a predetermined range of magnitude of the excitation voltage and discharge pulses which reside within predetermined ranges of magnitudes. The discharge sites may be detected using either reflected voltage or current pulses.