Method and apparatus for spatially resolved diagnosis

Abstract

The method and the device are used for diagnosing the electrical condition of a spatially extended hardware component, in particular a cable for transmitting electrical power, in a spatially resolved manner by means of interference between pulses fed in into the component by a signal generator. In these, the following method steps are in principle provided: feeding of at least two pulses into the component which are offset by a pulse interval Δt, detection of the interfered pulses and echoes by means of an analysis unit, c) variation of the pulse interval Δt for the spatially resolved scanning of the hardware component along its length l, d) repetition of the steps a) to c) until the component has been scanned at least in some sections, and e) analysis of the detected interfered pulses in the analysis unit. For a device for implementing the method it is provided that at least one signal generator is connected to the component and to an analysis unit to generate the pulses, wherein to provide a spatially resolved diagnosis local energy losses eW(x) can be mathematically determined over the length l of the component on the basis of a plurality of interference voltage waveforms and voltage waveforms induced by the pulses.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.