US 12,308,632 B2 · Systems and methods for detecting and identifying arcing based on numerical analysis

Abstract

Method and system allowing more accurate detection and identification of unwanted arcing include novel processing of signal voltage representing recovered power-line current. In one implementation, arc-faults are detected based on numerical analysis where individual cycles of line voltage and current are observed and data collected during each cycle is processed to estimate likelihood of presence of arc-event within each individual cycle based on pre-defined number of arc-events occurring within pre-defined number of contiguous cycles. In another implementation, fast transient current spikes detection can be done by: computing difference values between consecutive line-current samples collected over a cycle, average of differences, and peak-to-peak value of line-current; comparing each difference value to average of difference; comparing each difference value to peak-to-peak value; and, based on calculation of composite of two comparisons, using thresholds to determine if arcing is present within processed cycle.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A system for detecting and identifying arcing in an arc fault circuit interrupter having a power-line monitoring and processing circuit comprising:

a power-line monitoring and processing circuit obtaining data indicative of line voltage and line current;
and
a logic circuitry including non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer readable instructions and one or more processors coupled to said non-transitory computer readable medium, and when executing said computer readable instructions said logic circuitry:
controls said power-line monitoring and processing circuit to obtain a first data indicative of the line voltage and the line current for a first cycle of the voltage waveform;
controls said power-line monitoring and processing circuit to obtain a second data indicative of the line voltage and the line current for a second cycle of the voltage waveform subsequent to the first cycle;
correlates the second data with the data representative of at least one known arc reference cycle;
correlates the first data stored with the second data;
and
outputs a signal indicative of an arc-event when the second data correlates with the at least one known arc reference cycle within an arc-event correlation threshold, and the first data does not correlate with the second data within a previous-cycle correlation threshold.

6 more elements

A method of detecting and identifying arcing in an arc fault circuit interrupter having a power-line monitoring and processing circuit comprising:

obtaining by the power-line monitoring and processing circuit first data indicative of a line current for a first cycle of a voltage waveform;
obtaining by the power-line monitoring and processing circuit second data indicative of the line current for a second cycle of the voltage waveform subsequent to the first cycle;
correlating by a correlation estimator the second data with data representative of at least one known arc reference cycle;
comparing by a threshold comparator circuit an output of the correlation estimator with an arc-event correlation threshold;
correlating by the correlation estimator the first data with the second data;
comparing by the threshold comparator circuit an output of the correlation estimator with a previous-cycle correlation threshold;
and
outputting a signal notifying of an arc-event when an output of the threshold comparator circuit is indicative of
the second data correlating with the at least one known arc reference cycle within the arc-event correlation threshold, and
the first data not correlating with the second data within the previous-cycle correlation threshold.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for detecting and identifying arcing based on numerical analysis

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for detecting and identifying arcing based on numerical analysis

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17