Location of Wire Faults Using Chaotic Signal Generated by an Improved Colpitts Oscillator

Abstract

We propose a method to locate wire faults using a chaotic signal generated by an improved Colpitts oscillator. The chaotic signal is divided into two parts: one serves as a reference signal, and the other serves as a probe signal which is sent down to the wire. The fault is detected by correlating the reference signal with the probe signal back-reflected from the fault. Experimental and numerical studies show that the chaotic signal generated by the improved Colpitts oscillator has a broad spectrum and excellent correlation properties. Using this chaotic signal, we experimentally prove our method can be used to locate open circuits, short circuits, impedance discontinuities and other different damage cases on wires, and also demonstrate its ability for testing live wires through the numerical simulation. The results show that a spatial resolution of 0.2 m and a maximum range of about 930 m can be achieved. Furthermore, the interference margin is about 167 dB for the digital signals such as Mil-Std 1553 data on wire.