METHOD AND DEVICE FOR IDENTIFYING ARC FAULTS IN AN UNGROUNDED POWER SUPPLY SYSTEM

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a device for identifying arc faults in an ungrounded power supply system. This object is attained by detecting a displacement voltage to ground at an active conductor or at a neutral point of the ungrounded power supply system; by providing a value of an operating frequency occurring in the power supply system; and by analyzing a frequency spectrum of the detected displacement voltage by calculating and assessing Fourier coefficients at the locations of the operating frequency and its harmonics. Due to the broadband detection of the displacement voltage interacting with the “quick” generation of the basic functions by means of a DDS generator, arc faults can be identified reliably in an ungrounded power supply system.

Claims

1. A method for identifying arc faults in an ungrounded power supply system (2), comprising the method steps: detecting a displacement voltage (Ua) to ground (4) at an active conductor (L1, L2, L3, N) or at a neutral point of the ungrounded power supply system (2) providing a value of an operating frequency occurring in the power supply system (2), analyzing a frequency spectrum of the detected displacement voltage (Ua) by calculating and assessing Fourier coefficients at the locations of the operating frequency and its harmonics.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the operating frequency is a power frequency of the power supply system (2) and/or a converter switching frequency of a frequency converter.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized by generating orthogonal and harmonic basic functions using the operating frequency and its harmonics by means of direct digital synthesis (DDS) for calculating the Fourier coefficients.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized by deciding that an arc fault (6) has occurred, should at least one normalized Fourier coefficient, in terms of magnitude, exceed a threshold value allocated to the corresponding normalized Fourier coefficient.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the threshold values are assessed using a factor of 1/n.sup.2, wherein n is the order of the nth harmonic of the operating frequency.

6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the results of an insulation resistance measurement are also included for identifying arc faults.

7. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that further system parameters are also included for identifying arc faults.

8. A device for identifying arc faults in an ungrounded power supply system (2), comprising: a voltage sensor (10) for detecting a displacement voltage (Ua) to ground (4) at an active conductor (L1, L2, L3, N) or at a neutral point of the ungrounded power supply system (2); a frequency detection (15) for providing a value of an operating frequency occurring in the power supply system (2); an analyzing device (16) for analyzing a frequency spectrum of the detected displacement voltage (Ua) by calculating Fourier coefficients at the locations of the operating frequency and its harmonics.

9. The device according to claim 8, characterized in that the frequency detection (15) is realized in such a manner that the provided operating frequency is a power frequency of the power supply system (2) and/or a converter switching frequency of a frequency converter.

10. The device according to claim 8, characterized by a DDS generator (direct digital synthesis) (18) for generating orthogonal and harmonic basic functions using the operating frequency and its harmonics for calculating the Fourier coefficients.

11. The device according to claim 8, characterized by a decider (22), which determines that an arc fault (6) has occurred, should a normalized Fourier coefficient exceed a threshold value allocated to the corresponding Fourier coefficient.

12. The device according to claim 11, characterized by an assessing unit for assessing the threshold value having a factor of 1/n.sup.2, wherein n is the order of the nth harmonic of the operating frequency.

13. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that the decider (22) comprises an evaluation device (28), which also bears the results of an insulation resistance measurement and/or further system parameters for detecting arc faults in mind.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

[0056] Further advantageous embodiments can be taken from the description and the drawing, which shows a preferred embodiment of the invention by way of example. In the figures,

[0057] FIG. 1 shows an arc fault detection in an ungrounded power supply system according to the state of the art,

[0058] FIG. 2 shows an arc fault detection in an ungrounded power supply system according to the invention,

[0059] FIG. 3 shows a device according to the invention for detecting arc faults in an ungrounded power supply system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] FIG. 1 shows an arc fault detection in an ungrounded power supply system 2 according to the state of the art in a schematic view. The ungrounded power supply system 2 is set up as a three-phase network comprising the active conductors L1, L2, L3 (phase conductors) and N (neutral conductor) in an exemplary manner. As a particular feature of the ungrounded power supply system 2, all active parts of the power supply system are separated with respect to ground 4 so that a closed circuit cannot arise in a first fault instance because of the ideally infinitely large impedance value between the active conductors L1, L2, L3, N of the power supply system 2 to ground 4 when the first insulation fault occurs. In reality, an extremely low leakage current flows, whose size (in AC systems) at first is determined by the network leakage capacitors Ce.

[0061] Igniting an electric arc 6, for example between the conductor L3 and ground 4, causes a typical impulse-shaped change of the conducting current, said change being identifiable as an interfering event using a current sensor 8 (measuring current transformer, summation current transformer). This interference is superposed by the leakage currents (provided that they do not cancel each other out in three-phase power systems) when measuring the summation current. Moreover, the current sensor 8 comprises only a limited transmission bandwidth. Even using the sophisticated methods for digital signal processing in the spectral range, interferences caused by the electric arc 6 can still not be detected reliably.

[0062] In FIG. 2, an arc fault detection according to the invention in an ungrounded power supply system is shown in a schematic view. Due to the specific feature of the ungrounded power supply system 2, a displacement voltage Ua can be measured using a voltage sensor 10. In the example shown, the displacement voltage Ua is detected at the neutral point of the power supply system. The insulation fault which arose from the electric arc 6 igniting is connected to a current flow over the electric arc resistance. The current flow leads to a decrease in voltage along the electric arc resistance, said decrease in voltage being able to be measured as the displacement voltage Ua.

[0063] Contrary to detecting the current using a bandlimited current sensor 8, the (displacement) voltage Ua can be advantageously detected very broadbandedly using a voltage sensor 10 constructed as a voltage measuring device. This in turn enables also including higher harmonics of the operating frequency in the spectral analysis and to thus receive a reliable arc fault detection.

[0064] The orthogonal and harmonic basic functions can be generated by the DDS generator 18, said generation being required for the spectral transform of the displacement-voltage time signal (FIG. 3).

[0065] In a functional block diagram, FIG. 3 shows a device 12 according to the invention for detecting arc faults in an ungrounded power supply system 2.

[0066] The device 12 comprises the voltage sensor 10 at its input, said voltage sensor 10 detecting the displacement voltage Ua in the power supply system 2 and forwarding it to an AD converter 14. The series of the sampled and quantized values of the displacement voltage Ua go from the outlet of the AD converter 14 into an analysis device 16, in which these values are subjected to a spectral analysis by means of a discrete Fourier transform.

[0067] A frequency detection 15 conducted as a frequency measuring device determines the value of the operating frequency from an analog signal, which shows a representation of the voltage curve available on the power supply system 2, and forwards this value to the analysis device 16. The analysis device 16 comprises the DDS generator 18 and a DFT block 20 as essential functional units.

[0068] The DDS generator 18 generates orthogonal and harmonic basic functions using the known operating frequency and its harmonics. These basic functions are used in the DFT block 20 for calculating the Fourier coefficients.

[0069] In a decider 22, the calculated and normalized Fourier coefficients are compared to the weighted threshold values allocate thereto and deposited in a memory 24. The decider 22 can further comprise an evaluating unit 28, which also includes the results from an insulation fault measurement and/or further system parameters. The results of the insulation fault measurement and/or the further network parameters can be provided by an insulation monitoring device (IMD) 30.

[0070] Should a triggering criteria be fulfilled, an alarm signal 26 is sent out, which signals an occurring electric arc 6.

[0071] By the broadbanded detection of the displacement voltage interacting with the “quick” generation of the basic functions by means of the DDS generator, arc faults can be reliably detected in an ungrounded power supply system.