FL-20A Instruction Manual - Page 29
Model FL-20A Cable Fault Locator
Locating Shorts in Medium and
High Voltage Cables
FL-20A Cable Fault Locator Operation
The Clinton FL-20A Cable Fault Locator’s “Shorts” mode uses a resis-
tance bridge based on the Wheatstone Bridge principle. The shorts test
requires that during the bridge measurement, current must flow from the
red and blue probes, which are attached to each end of the cable under
test, to the reference ground conductor, connected to the green probe.
Inner conductors that make direct physical contact constitute a direct
short. By contrast, an event where conductors do not touch but an arc
occurs between them during hipot testing at high voltage is called a high
voltage short.
The FL-20A locates high voltage faults with a 20kV high voltage genera-
tor. When shorted conductors fail at high voltages, a bridge measure-
ment can still be made because the HV generator will allow the shorted
conductor to discharge to the reference ground conductor. The bridge
measurement is made only when current flows or when arcing. If insuf
-
ficient current flows, the test will give inaccurate results or no results at
all.
Testing Medium and High Voltage Cables
Medium and high voltage cables present unique problems in cable fault
location. Some faults in medium and high voltage cables break down at
low voltages. As long as the cables are high enough in total loop resis-
tance (250 milliohms or more), the results will be accurate. It is those
faults that break down at higher hipot voltage that are suspect.
In these types of cables, the physical distances between the defects caus-
ing the shorts are often relatively large, so the fault locator may not be
able to produce enough voltage to flow current from one to another. In
general, if the cable fails hipot testing at a test voltage of 20 kVDC or 14
kVAC, or above, the FL-20A will not have enough test voltage to gener-
ate the sustained arc necessary for shorts testing.
There are additional difficulties at these voltages. The dynamics of this
current flow is complex, because arcs flashing within the inside of the
cable are actually tracking along the different surfaces of the conductors.
The energy of the arc causes burning and carbonization along its path,
increasing surface resistivity between the shorted conductors. When
the resistance becomes high enough, the arc will seek a slightly different