Abstract
Arc faults in an aircraft’s power distribution system (PDS) often leads to cable and equipment damage, which seriously threatens the personal safety of the passengers and pilots. An accurate and real-time arc fault detection method is needed for the Solid-State Power Controller (SSPC), which is a key protection equipment in a PDS. In this paper, a new arc detection method is proposed based on the improved LeNet5 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model after a Time–Frequency Analysis (TFA) of the DC currents was obtained, which makes the arc detection more real-time. The CNN is proposed to detect the DC arc fault for its advantage in recognizing more time–frequency joint details in the signals; the new structure also combines the adaptive and multidimensional advantages of the TFA and image intelligent recognition. It is confirmed by experimental data that the combined TFA–CNN can distinguish arc faults accurately when the whole training database has been repeatedly trained 3 to 5 times. For the TFA, two kinds of methods were compared, the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The results show that DWT is more suitable for DC arc fault detection. The experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Highlights
An arc fault in the power distribution system (PDS) of an all-electric aircraft (AEA) is difficult to be traced since it is a transient phenomenon [1]
Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is more appropriate for DC arc fault detection in an aircraft
It can be concluded that Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) + Convolution Neural Network (CNN) can discriminate between the fault data and normal data
Summary
An arc fault in the power distribution system (PDS) of an all-electric aircraft (AEA) is difficult to be traced since it is a transient phenomenon [1]. Many arc faults only occur when the aircraft is flying, accompanying the severe vibration of the frame, the high stress on the cable, the high altitude, etc These environmental factors lead to the insulation being declined or the cable connection loosened, which make it easier to cause arc faults. The arc discharge is an erratic phenomenon affected by different power electronic loads and controllers [2] Different environment makes these arc faults hard to reproduce during the maintenance after the aircraft has landed [3]. Series arc faults, generated between the loosened contacts, often appears at the connections of the plug or series load, and the arc can be regarded as an extra load [5] When it occurs at the PDS, it is difficult to be detected because the circuit current is very small. Circuit breakers, which are unsuited to switch a low-current circuit off, might introduce a series arc function, has been widely to protect the to PDS
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