Underground Power Cable Detection and

Inspection Technology
Based on Magnetic Field Sensing at
Ground Surface Level

Guide : Jassiya M A

By Anand K.R
Reg no:13007311
S7-EEE
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Index

Introduction
Conventional methods of cable detection
Limitations
Advanced Surface level detection technology
Advantages over conventional methods
Application
References
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Introduction
Advantages of underground power cables

have lower transmission losses; (less corona loss)

have lower maintenance costs;
require a narrower band of land to install;
are less susceptible to the impacts of severe
weather.
Can be used in densely populated urban areas;
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Importance of power cable detection

power cables are used to deliver electricity to consumers.

In metropolitan areas, most power cables are buried underground .

Without the prior knowledge of underground power cables, risk can be posed to the
excavation workers or other construction workers.

Therefore, underground power cables must be detected before any excavation

works to check if there are any buried power cables underground

Engineers could have better situational awareness and have more information
about the potential problems of the underground power cables.

This could make the underground power distribution network

more reliable and avoid unnecessary power interruption.
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Conventional methods of cable detection

Signal injection and detection
a)conductive injection

 b) Inductive injection

Uses clamps to induce signal to the

power cables

Magnetic sensing
The location and depth of
the subsurface pipe or cable
is located by the angle of the
magnetic force concentrically
generated by the metal pipe
and the strength of the
magnetic field.

Limitations
The signal injection method uses a transmitter and a receiver which
make it more difficult to carry and it takes a lot of time to setup or
initialize the process.
These devices only detect spatial parameters of the underground
cables.
They cannot provide any electrical information in most cases.
In addition, it heavily relies on the expertise, experience, and
judgment of the operator to properly locate the underground cables.
These tools are in principle just a magnetometer and they do not
provide much analysis about the measured data.
These devices are very expensive.

Advanced Surface level detection technology

Uses an array of magnetoresistive (MR) magnetic sensors

to detect the magnetic flux produced
by the power cables.

Magneto-resistive sensors

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Working

The magnetoresistive sensors are based on the magnetoresistive effect.

The resistance is maximum when the current flow and the internal
magnetisation vector are parallel
The resistance is minimum when the angle between current flow and
the internal magnetisation vector is 90 degrees.
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Advantages
Disadvantages

high reliability due to their

rugged construction
Due to its high sensitivity it
can be used to measure
weak magnetic fields
high operating
temperature
Reasonable cost
Small size

Sensitive to
interfering
magnetic fields.
Very strong
magnetic field can
damage the
sensor
Limited linear
range

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Detection process
* It starts with the default position parameter
P0.
*Phase current Ip in each conductor is calculated
by inverse current program (ICP) based
on the LSA algorithm.
*Then, the magnetic field Bcal is calculated
using Ip and A in magnetic field evaluation
(MFE) module.
*There is a predetermined minimum threshold
value of Euclidean distance ||Bcal Bmea|| as the
end condition for terminating the optimization.
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Result

The measured magnetic field values

are very close to the values calculated analytically

Based on the measured magnetic field, the current source reconstruction

was carried out to find out the spatial and electrical parameters
of these three-phase power lines.
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Applications
It can be used for detection of high
power underground cables carrying
voltages up to
132 KV.
It can

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Experimental setup

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Specifications
MR three-axis sensor (Honeywell HMC2003)
array.
Three-phase straight power lines (50 Hz)
height of sensor array as y = 0 cm and the
height of power lines as 50.0 cm.
so , the positions of powerlines are (16,50),
(0,50), and (16,50)
Input phase currents of the 3 conductors are :
16.3, 16.2,
and 16.5 A respectively
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Working

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