Sectionalization of Degraded Polymeric Cable with Multiple Joints using TDR Technique

Abstract

This paper presents the study on time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique in sectionalizing degraded cable along a polymeric insulated cable with multiple joints. TDR has been widely used for fault localization in polymeric cables. However, it only gives an average condition of the cable and could not pinpoint the degraded section along a cable especially for cable with jointing. Hence, this paper investigates the ability of TDR technique to pinpoint degraded cable section for an XLPE cable with two joints. The TDR system is modelled in MATLAB with a 300-metre XLPE cable that is divided into three equal lengths of 100 m and joint together using two cable joints. The location of degraded cable section is varied to study the ability of TDR in detecting degraded cable at various locations. Simulation results are then validated experimentally with the same cable configurations. Findings from validation of results show that TDR is capable of pinpointing the degraded cable section which allow sectionalization to take place for cable replacement.