2011 International Conference on Electronic & Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology

Modeling and Simulation Analysis of Single Phase Arc Grounding Fault Based on
MATLAB

Ran Yu, Zhouxing Fu, Qingliang Wang, Shangbin Sun, Haidong Chen, Qi Xu f , Xuejie Chen
Xi'an University of Science and Technology
College of Electrical and Control Engineering
Xi'an Shanxi, China
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—The single phase arc grounding fault is a main fault The wavelet transform is used to extract the transient
form in medium voltage distribution networks. It is essential to information of arc voltage and current signals. And then the
build an accurate grounding arc model for fault analysis. In singularity of the fault signal is analyzed, to determine the
this paper, a new grounding arc model is built based on the fault moment. Comparing the simulation waveform with the
MATLAB with the arc gap energy-balance theory. Comparing experimental waveform, the results show that this model can
the simulation waveform with the experimental waveform, the reflect the characteristics of actual arc grounding fault
results show that this model can reflect the characteristics of effectively.
actual arc grounding fault effectively. By using wavelet
transform, the extract transient information of arc voltage and II. GROUNDING ARC MODEL
current. The singularity of the fault signal analysis, to
determine the fault moment. A. Arc Mathematical Model
Keywords-fault arc; arc simulation; MATLAB; wavelet In the power system, the arc model is divided into
transformation Primary arc and Secondary arc [4]. The Primary arc is due to
fault, appears from fault occurrence to the breaker of fault
phase off before. And the Secondary arc is at the breaker of
I. INTRODUCTION
fault phase off. It is caused and maintained between sound
At present, the simulation of single phase arc grounding phase and fault phase by coupling each other. This paper
fault, much as the metal grounding or through a fixed studies the Primary arc.
resistance grounding [1]. For arc ground fault, by using the Arc grounding, metal grounding and resistance
simulation results of the above model can not accurately grounding are different. It is not linear relationship between
reflect the real situation. Created an experimental arc current and arc voltage. It regards an arc as a nonlinear
environment to simulate arc fault are expensive, and conductor, using nonlinear differential equations to describe
simulated arc fault in an actual power system, not only the arc.
expensive, but it is not safe to operate. Therefore, seek for Being derived on the arc gap energy-balance theory [5]:
the digital simulation model of arc fault is particularly
important.
In addition, the simulation model of the arc early is
mainly establishes under the environment of EMTP [2] and Where:
EMTDC [3], they have certain rationality and the feasibility.
— : storing energy changes per unit arc length
But the software of EMTP and EMTDC are highly dt
specialized, which its application flexibility and accessibility e X i: input power per unit arc length
can not be compared with the MATLAB. Powerful
i: arc current
mathematical operation ability makes many difficult
problems in physical module modeling to solve in MATLAB. e: electric intensity in arc column
Moreover, in order to maintain the voltage and the current P ioss: Power loss per unit arc length
relationships of the dynamic arc model, it needs to maintain Because arc resistance value is very small, therefore the
the arc resistance value in the half-cycle, which does not model can be expressed as the form of conductance, will
match the randomness of the practical arc resistance during transformed (1) further:
the establishment of the arc model. Along with the (dq\(dg\ (i^L^
=p (2)

UJUJ H^ )
MATLAB's Power System library perfected gradually,
establish arc with MATLAB simulation model become
simple and effective. With the improvement of MATLAB's
Power System library gradually, it becomes simple and
g{dt) dq_{ Phss )
effective to establish the arc model by using MATLAB. S
dt
In this paper, a new grounding fault model is built based
on the MATLAB with the arc gap energy-balance theory.
Where:

978-1-61284-088-8/11/S26.00 ©2011 IEEE 4607 12-14 August, 2011

 g: arc conductance C. Simulationl Model
dq_ At present the simulation of arc models are mainly
dq dt operated in Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP)
Let T = f 8>P* (4) environment, its shortcoming is the limitation of simulation
time. Matlab/Simulink [7] is software in use of modeling and
Equation (3) can be written as:
simulation in the dynamic system, provide powerful data and
\xe exi graphics processing functions, also can be simulated in
-1 (5)
dt relatively longer time range. As the power system module
v p
V loss library is perfected gradually, using Matlab/Simulink to
Consider the arc length is L, will transformed (5) further: establish the whole arc simulation model simple and
effective.
r
xe Lxexi
-1 ■1 (6) In Matlab/Simulink environment, use Power System
dt LxR module library to build arc simulation model in Fig.l (a),
which its subsystem simulation model is shown in Fig.l (b).
-1 (7) The DEE module is a differential equation editor in Fig. 1 (b),
it is in use of realizing the differential equation of arc model
Where: in this paper. The STEP module is used to control the arcing
u: arc voltage, u=L X e time, and the HIT CROSSING module is used to detect the
arc current zero-crossing.
P 0 : Power loss in arc column, P0=L X P ioss=uc2 X g
u c: arc voltage constant
Taking the above equation and putting it into (7):
1 uxi - 1
r 2 A
Connection Port Connection Portl
+a>
Connection Connection
(8)
dt u2cxg J "c J
Port Portl

2 A (a) Simulation mode of arc

(9)
Connection

Through the above derivation, it has got a nonlinear Port

Voltage Measurement
® Connection
deterministic arc model by differential equations. Obviously,

a
Controlled Current Source Portl

this is the differential equation about dynamic admittance of

the arc. It is based on the energy-balance theory, reflects the
main physical characteristics of the arc to determine the T Crossing

and the u c to be solved. This paper adopts (9) to simulate the (b) Subsystem simulation mode of arc
arc. Figure 1. Simulation model of arc in MATLAB

B. Model Parameters
III. A R C FAULT SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
(1) Determination of T
T reflects the rising velocity of arc voltage in the arc volt-
A. Simulation Analysis
ampere characteristic curve.
ax I In Matlab/Simulink environment, it is established a
T = (10) simple simulation circuit model for testing the effectiveness
of the arc in Fig.2. In this case, there are the mainly arc
Where, simulation mod-el parameters: power supply voltage
I p is the peak current in the arc volt-ampere u=10kV, frequency f=50Hz, arc length L=100 cm,
characteristic curve, and can be adopted approximately short- a=2.85x10-5. The Simulation time is from 0s to 0.1s, and the
circuit current when using direct short circuit. Alpha is simulation results are shown in from Fig.3 to Fig.6.
the empirical value, take a=2.85 X 10-5 [6]. L p is the
arc length can be approximate-das constant.
r &
(2) Determination of u c
Scope2
A large number of experimental studies have shown that
voltage drop per unit length along the main arc column is
independent of the arc current when the arc peak current in
--w\^—
- o ^ >B
Current Measurement

$)
/ V ) AC Voltage Source
the range of 1.4kA ~ 24kA for most of the arc. It is
a constant and the experience value is 15V/cm, so there is:
uc=15XLp
Figure 2. Circuit model for simple arc simulation
(11)

Identify applicable sponsor/s here, (sponsors)

4608
 distinctly, and it contains two volt-current curves, whose
slope is negative.
B. Measurement Validation
There are given arc voltage, the arc current and arc
resistance of the measured curves in the lOkV voltage grade
from Fig.7 to Fig.9.
It is found that the results of simulation are quite closed
Figure 3. Simulation waveform of arc voltage to the measured waveforms through Fig.3, 4, 5 are compared
with Fig.7, 8, 9. The simulation model reflects the
characteristics of the actual arc.
400
300
200
L,

r
100
0
-100 liT^v
-200
Figure 4. Simulation waveform of arc current -300
-400
-500
140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210
t/ms

Figure 7. Measured waveform of arc voltage

Figure 5. Simulation waveform of arc resistor

140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210

//ms
Figure 8. Measured waveform of arc current

250
200 H
Ci 150
£ 100
50
ol-
Figure 6. U-I characteristic curve of arc -50
155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 205
In Fig.3~Fig.6 are analyzed and the following conclusion: t/ms
Figure 9. Measured waveform of arc resistor
(1) Fig.3 shows arc voltage waveform distorts seriously,
and its shape likes "saddle" [5]. In addition, as each half
wave is concerned, the former half wave of arc voltage is IV. MOMENT IDENTIFICATION OF FAULT SIGNAL
higher than latter, because the temperature of former half
The grounding arc voltage and current
wave is lower slightly than latter.
waveforms have sig-nificant mutation and has a great
(2) Fig.4 shows arc current waveform is similar to sine
singularity in the fault time when single phase ground
wave, but it changes slowly in zero-current area, which
fault occurs. It can extract the fault information from the rich
characterized 'zero-rest' signed with circle in fig.4 obviously
transient waveforms and then determine the fault moment [8].
[5]. The value of current is very closely to zero in the period
Fourier transform is a basic tool for studying
of presented above, it declines before current of over-zero,
singularity of the function. However, due to the lack
but changes slowly in the point of over-zero.
of spatial locality, it can only determine the overall nature of
(3) Fig.5 shows the waveform of arc resistance is time- the singularity, and it is difficult to determine their singular
varying. Because the 'zero-rest' of arc current, arc resistance points distribution in space.
rushes up, has high value of resistance. Wavelet analysis [9] is a time-frequency domain analysis
(4) Fig.6 shows U-I curve approximates to the curve of method, and has an adjustable time-frequency window with
magnetic hysteresis, which has nonlinear characteristic

4609
different time-frequency resolution. It has both localization (b) Wavelet of arc current
capabilities in time-frequency domain. The signal is Figure 10. Wavelet transforms
decomposed into different frequency bands. The coefficient
of the wavelet transform has a maximal modulus value when
the transient signals are occurred. Through the V. CONCLUSIONS
modulus maxima detection to determine the arc occurred. A simple and effective arc simulation model is proposed,
The db [10] wavelet is orthogonal wavelet, has a and compared the simulation waveform with the
good frequency characteristic, and the divider experimental waveform, the results show that this model can
frequency effect is well. Therefore, this paper adopts db5 reflect the characteristics of actual arc grounding fault
wavelet, analyzes arc voltage and current waveforms in one- effectively. By using wavelet transform analysis its arc
dimensional multi scale. It is decomposed the fifth voltage and arc current waveforms, it can effectively
dimension, sampling frequency is 25.6 KHz, fault occurs at determine the arc fault moment. Grounding arc model is
0.02s. The singular point corresponds to the established in this paper lay a solid foundation in the future
time tl =0.01992s, is closed to the fault time in Fig.lO (a) of for studying the reliability of single-phase grounding of the
dl layer waveforms. Also it corresponds to the neutral indirectly grounded power system.
time t2=0.01996s, is closed to the fault time in Fig.lO (b) of
dl layer waveforms. Because the arc is a nonlinear pure
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