IRJET- Underground Cable Fault Detection and Transmission of Intimation through Soil Wireless Transceiver

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 06 Issue: 03 | Mar 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2019, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.211 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 712
UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTION AND TRANSMISSION
OF INTIMATION THROUGH SOIL WIRELESS TRANSCEIVER
GUNASEKHAR.B1, HARISH.T2, JAYASURYA.S3, ANBARASAN.A4
1,2,3Student, Dept. of ECE Engineering, Valliammai Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, India
4Professor, Dept of ECE Engineering, Valliammai Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, India
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Abstract – The project is intended inordertofindasolution
to detect the fault in underground supply lines in an efficient
manner and in less cost. For this purpose, we use the Wireless
Underground Sensor Networks to transmit the data from
transmitter side to receiver side. Whenever the fault occurs in
the underground cable it is transmitted to the PC using this
WUSN. It is used in this fault detection because of its less
complexity and less cost. WUSN mainly makes use of the
moisture present in the soil. This does not involve any kind of
waves to transmit the data and it makes the detection
harmless. Arduino microcontroller plays a major role anditis
coded with the embedded C to detect the fault in the
underground supply lines with the help of AC current sensor
connected to the supply lines. Wireless soil transmitter and
receiver is used to transmit the data from the Arduino
microcontroller connected to the supply lines via current
sensor to the pc via serial converter
Key Words: WUSN, Arduino microcontroller, soil
wireless transmitter.
1. INTRODUCTION
An embedded system is so important in today’s automation
as it has been widely used in all kind of industries and
automation. This project is to determine the distance of
underground cable fault from base station in kilometers
using an PIC Microcontroller. Generally, we use overhead
lines were we can easily identify the faults but in rushed
places or familiar cities we couldn’t use overhead lines. So,
we are going to use underground cables. Underground
cables are used largely in urban area instead of overhead
lines. We cannot easily identify thefaultsintheunderground
cables. This project deals with PIC microcontroller, current
sensor, soil wireless transceiver, serial convertor. This
project greatly reduces the time and operates effectively.
Many types of faults occur due to construction works and
other reasons. At this time, it is difficult to dig out cable due
to not knowing the exact location of the cable fault. Many
urban areas follow the underground cabling system.
Sometimes faults occur due to construction worksandother
reasons. Nowadays the world is becoming digitalized so the
project was intended to detect the location of fault in digital
way.
2. OBJECTIVES
The main objective is to establish an efficient wireless
communication between the transceivers in challenging
underground medium.
To detect any fault in underground power supply lines and
to indicate the precise location of the fault.
To detect the location that where the cable has gotdamaged.
To reduce the cost and making it more effective in long
distance applications and to reduce the complexity.
3. RELATED WORKS:
In this work, the recent advances in MI-WUSNs and related
areas (WUSNs, NFC, magnetic communication in liquids)
have been reviewed [1]. The advances in the related areas
provide an important insight into the typical problems of
system modeling and design. For MI-WUSNs, the advances
are related to various aspects of wireless communication
and networking.
In particular, the important aspects of channel modeling,
digital signal transmission and processing, synchronization,
network design, WPT, and localization, havebeendiscussed.
Through this, a better understanding of the underlying
research challenges and design problems has been
elaborated.
These interfaces might give rise to some novel applications
of IoT.
The development of an outdoor WUSN test bed and the
realization of WUSN experiments are challenging [2]. This
work provides a set of guidelines that result in a balanced
approach between high accuracy and a practical
implementation of a WUSN test bed. The identification and
elimination/mitigation of each variable which significantly
affects the experiment results is the basic approach behind
the proposed guideline.
The main aim of this paper is to detect the fault in a cable
using Arduino microcontroller kit [3]. The cable is placed
underground of the farming land. Usually it is difficult to
detect the fault but this paper uses a simple solution such as
Wireless underground sensor networks to detect the fault. It
simply uses the soil wireless transmitter and receivertopass

the information that where the fault occurs by placing the
sensors to a particular range. The main advantage is that it
does not use any kind of waves inside the soil, it uses the
electrons to transmit the information obtained from the
microcontroller kit.
This work introduces theconceptofa WirelessUnderground
Sensor Network (WUSN) that can be used to monitor a
variety of conditions, such as soil properties for agricultural
applications and toxic substances for environmental
monitoring [4]. WUSN devices does not require any wired
networks and it is completely laid below ground. All
necessary sensors, memory, a processor,a radio,anantenna,
and a power source are needed for each device that makes
the deployment much simpler than existing underground
sensing solutions. Wireless communication is significantly
more challenging within a dense substance such as soil or
rock than through air. This factor requires that
communication protocols, that combined with the necessity
to conserve energy due to the difficulty of unearthing and
recharging WUSN devices.
4. PROPOSED SYSTEM
Our system is intended to locate the fault in underground
cable line from the base station to exact location in
kilometers using an Arduino Microcontroller kit. Whenever
the fault occurs in underground cable it is difficult to detect
the location of fault for process of repairing the particular
cable.
The proposed technology used is controller (PIC
Microcontroller) to identify thefaultanditisindicatedusing.
WUSN have many application wireless soil transmitter and
receiver. WUSN is defined as a group of nodes whose means
of data transmission and reception is completely
subterranean like infrastructures, security, environmental,
monitoring.
5. BLOCK DIAGRAM
Fig -1: Transmitter Unit
Fig -2: Receiver Unit
5.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM DESCRIPTION
Initially the current sensors are connected to the
underground cables and it is kept to a certain range o cables
depending on the current sensor used. Then the current
sensors are connected to the PIC16F877A Arduino
microcontroller.
This microcontroller continuously monitors the readings
given by the current sensors connected to the underground
cables. this gained information is transmitted to the receiver
PC via the soil wireless transmitter and receiver.
Microcontroller iscoded usingtheembeddedcprogramming
language to detect any kind of changes from current sensors.
Embedded C is a set of language extensions for the C
programming language by the c standards committee to
address commonality issues that exist betweenCextensions
for different embedded systems. Embedded C programming
support exotic features such as fixed-point arithmetic,
multiple distinct memory banks and basic I/O operations.It
has a number of features that are not available in normal C
programming, suchasfixed-pointarithmetic,namedaddress
spaces and basic I/O hardware addressing.
Then the information is transmitted to the receiver unit
which comprises of soil wireless receiver, to the serial
converter and connected to the personal computer.
The serial converter uses the UART protocol. The pc has an
output displayed in the spreadsheet which just shows
whether the current is flowing between the various nodes.
This done using coding language C. C programming is a
very simple language used in order to simplify the work of
the user.
6. INTERNAL CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
The PIC16F877A is a microcontroller board based on thePIC
Series controller. It has33digitalinput/outputpins(ofwhich
can be used as PWM outputs), and 8 analog inputs. It alsohas
16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an
ICSP header, and a reset button.
PIC16F877A is 8bit microcontroller packs Microchip’s
powerful PIC architecture into a 40 package and is upwards
compatible with the PIC16C5X, PIC12CXXX and PIC16C7X
devices.
The underground cable lines are continuously monitored by
the current sensors if there is any leakage or fault in cable
lines. The current sensor generatesasignalproportionaltoit.
PERSONAL
COMPUTER
WIRELESS
SOIL
(RECIEVER)
SERIAL
CONVERTOR

The generated signalcould be analog output and even digital
output. The signal is passed to the PIC16F877A which
identify the exact location of the fault in the cable lines. This
information is transmitted and received via using WUSN and
the displayed in PC.
Fig -3: Internal Circuit Diagram
7. DESIGN FLOW
The flow chart is diagrammatical representation aboutthe
working of underground cable fault detection using the
Wireless underground sensor networks.
The current sensor 1 which is attached between node 1 to 2
sends information whether the current flows in the node
which it is attached to, then current sensor 2 sends the
information as same as current sensor 1 to the
microcontroller and the as many as nodes we require also
does the something. TheArduinomicrocontrollerfetched the
information from the various currentsensorswhichiscoded
with embedded c and transmits the information’s using the
WUSN.
No
Yes
NO
Yes
Chart-1: Flow Chart representation
The computer is attachedtotheWUSN usingserial converter
displays the live information about the underground cables
in a spreadsheet which is coded with c programming
language. In the flow chart ‘n’ represents that any numberof
nodes can be connected depending upon the value of the
current sensor used. The exact node where the current
doesn’t flow is displayed in the spreadsheet else it just
displays that there is no fault in the underground cable.
8. METHODOLOGIES
8.1. Embedded C Programming
Embedded C programming want to have a nonstandard
extension to the C programming language in order to
support exotic features such as fixed-point arithmetic,
multiple distinct memory banks and basic I/O operations.It
has a number of features that are not available in normal C,
such as fixed-point arithmetic, named address spaces and
basic I/O hardware addressing. Lot of syntax and standards
are used by embedded C was main () function, variable
definition, data type declaration, conditional statements (if,
switch case), loops (while, for), functions (), arrays, strings,
structures, union, bit operations, macros, etc.
8.2 WUSN
Wireless underground sensor networks are a way of
transmitting the information’s or data from soil wireless
transmitter to receiver using the moisture of soil present in
it. The transmitter transmits the information from source
node to receiver attached to the destination node using
electrons inside the moisture of soil.
8.3 BASIC METHOD
The AC current sensor is connected to the cable which islaid
underground and the informationwhetherthecurrentflows
through the cable or not is transmitted to the wireless soil
transmitter using the Arduino microcontroller kit which is
connected to the AC current sensor. The microcontroller kit
is coded using the Embedded C.
The soil wireless receiver receives the data from the
transmitter through the soil which contains moisture and it
is connected to the serial converter which uses the UART
protocol. It is coded using the Embedded C programming.
The personal Computer is device used here in order to
display the output from the microcontroller.Itisdisplayedin
the spread sheet in the form of table. The Output has three
columns in which one displays number of nodes and the
current sensor and status of the node whether the current
flows between the nodes or not.
Start
If current flows in
node 1 to 2
If current flows in
node 2 to n
No fault in any nodes of
the UG cable Notes down the nodes
PC connected via serial
converter
Stop

8.4 Power Supply
Electrical power is a reference to a source of electrical
power. The component that supplies electrical power to the
devices is called a power supply unit or PSU. This is
commonly applied to most of the electrical energy supplies,
less often to mechanical ones, and rarely to others. Power
supply unit is the combination of Step down transformer,
Bridge rectifier, filter circuit and the voltage regulator
Fig -4: Power Supply Unit
8.5 PIC MICROCONTROLLER
PIC stands for Peripheral Interface Microcontroller which
was developed by the general instrumentsmicrocontrollers.
It is controlled by software and programmed in such a way
that it performs different tasks and control a generationline.
PIC microcontrollers are used in different new applications
like audio accessories, advanced medical devices, and smart
devices. This device is accessible in 40 pin and 44 pin
packages. All devices within this family share common
design with subsequent differences.
Fig-5: PIC Microcontroller
8.6 CURRENT SENSOR
Current detector could be a device that detects electric
current in a wire and generates a signal proportional to that
current. The generated signal could be analog output and
even digital output. The generated signal may be then used
to display the measured current in an ammeter or may be
stored for any further analysis within the data or
information acquisition system, or may be used for
controlling purpose. The detected current and also the
output signal may be alternating current input and direct
current input.
Fig -6: Current sensor
9. ADVANTAGES
The main advantage of this paper is, WUSNisharmlesstothe
living beings. It does not use any kind of waystotransmit the
information from the cable laid underground to the output
device above ground. The cost is less and can be placed in
any places like power station and it is risk free. Depending
on the range of current sensor it can be used for long
distance application. It is less complex circuit to build and it
does not involve any radiation. The circuit built to detectthe
underground cable fault detection is radiation less and it is
harmless.
10. CONCLUSIONS
In this work the short circuit fault at a particular distance in
the Underground Cables can be detected using Ohm’s Law
which enables to rectify fault efficiently.
This system can be beneficial to underground cables fault
finding as it is cost effective and can be accessed remotely.
This system will help to implement the system to regulate
the industrial use of underground cables and avoid power
losses.
It gives the new dimensions in the field of underground
cables fault finding with minimum cost and less time.
The circuit uses WUSN in an efficient mannertotransmit the
information from current sensor to the microcontroller
without any harmful radiation.
REFERENCES
[1] SURVEY ON ADVANCES IN MAGNETIC INDUCTION
BASED WIRELESS UNDERGROUND SENSOR
NETWORKS, Steven Kisseleff, Member, IEEE, Ian F.
Akyildiz, Fellow, IEEE, and Wolfgang H. Gerstacker,
Senior Member, IEEE, 2014
[2] DEVELOPMENT FOR A TESTBOD FOR WIRELESS
UNDERGROUND SENSOR NET WORKS, Agnelo R. Silva
and Mehmet C. Vuran, Department of Computer Science

and Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Lincoln, NE 68588, USA, 2009
[3] INDUSTRIAL UNDERGROUND POWER CABLE FAULT
IDENTIFICATION USING ARDUINO CONTROLLER,
Prabakaran K, Assistant Professor, Department of
Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Erode
Sengunthar Engineering College, Tamilnadu,India,2018
[4] WIRELESS UNDERGROUND SENSOR NETWORKS:
RESEARCH CHALLENGES, Ian F. Akyildiz, Erich P.,
Broadband Wireless Networking Laboratory,
Stuntebeck, School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 75 5th St.
NW, Atlanta, GA 30308, United States,2006.
[5] K.K. Kuan, Prof. K. Warwick, “Real-time expert system
for fault location on high voltage underground
distribution cables”,IEEEPROCEEDINGS-C,Vol.139,No.
3, MAY 1992.
[6] Tarlochan S. Sidhu, Zhihan Xu, “Detection of Incipient
Faults in Distribution Underground Cables”, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 25, NO. 3, JULY
2010.

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