Method for detecting soft faults in a cable, which method is based on the integral of a reflectogram

A device for detecting soft faults in a cable comprising an apparatus for measuring, at a point of the cable, a signal back-propagated in the cable and a computer configured to execute a method for detecting soft faults in a transmission line comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a measurement signal, called time-domain reflectogram,
• characteristic of the reflection of a reference signal previously injected into the line
• calculating the integral of the time-domain reflectogram,
• selecting, from the samples of the integral of the time-domain reflectogram, a first sample P1, a second sample P2, delayed by a first delay k1 relative to the first sample P1 and a third sample P3, delayed by a second delay k2 relative to the second sample P2,
• calculating a first distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the second sample P2 and the value of either one of the first sample P1 or of the third sample P3,
• calculating a second distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the first sample P1 and of the third sample P3,
• performing a first comparison of the first distance to the second distance weighted by a weighting coefficient β,
• deducing from the result of the first comparison information on the existence of a soft fault at a position of the cable corresponding to the time-domain abscissa of the second sample P2.

A computer program comprising instructions stored on a tangible non-transitory storage medium for executing on a processor executing a method for detecting soft faults in a transmission line comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a measurement signal, called time-domain reflectogram, characteristic of the reflection of a reference signal previously injected into the line,
• calculating the integral of the time-domain reflectogram,
• selecting, from the samples of the integral of the time-domain reflectogram, a first sample P1, a second sample P2, delayed by a first delay k1 relative to the first sample P1 and a third sample P3, delayed by a second delay k2 relative to the second sample P2,
• calculating a first distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the second sample P2 and the value of either one of the first sample P1 or of the third sample P3,
• calculating a second distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the first sample P1 and of the third sample P3,
• performing a first comparison of the first distance to the second distance weighted by a weighting coefficient β,
• deducing from the result of the first comparison information on the existence of a soft fault at a position of the cable corresponding to the time-domain abscissa of the second sample P2.

A tangible non-transitory processor-readable recording medium on which is stored a program comprising instructions for executing a method for detecting soft faults in a transmission line comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a measurement signal, called time-domain reflectogram,
• characteristic of the reflection of a reference signal previously injected into the line
• calculating the integral of the time-domain reflectogram,
• selecting, from the samples of the integral of the time-domain reflectogram, a first sample P1, a second sample P2, delayed by a first delay k1 relative to the first sample P1 and a third sample P3, delayed by a second delay k2 relative to the second sample P2,
• calculating a first distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the second sample P2 and the value of either one of the first sample P1 or of the third sample P3,
• calculating a second distance equal to the difference in absolute value between the value of the first sample P1 and of the third sample P3,
• performing a first comparison of the first distance to the second distance weighted by a weighting coefficient β,
• deducing from the result of the first comparison information on the existence of a soft fault at a position of the cable corresponding to the time-domain abscissa of the second sample P2.