Advanced Techniques for Electrical Wire Fault Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2005.1 Topic No.: N05-022 Topic Title: Advanced Techniques for Electrical Wire Fault Proposal No.: N051-022-0612 Firm: LiveWire Test Labs, Inc. 5330 South 900 East Suite 150 Salt Lake City, Utah 84117-3506 Contact: Paul Smith Phone: (801) 293-8300 Web Site: www.livewiretest.com Abstract: LiveWire Test Labs, Inc., in cooperation with the Center of Excellence for Smart Sensors at the University of Utah is working towards the full development of "smart connectors" and smart circuit breakers that can locate faults on live wires in flight. These faults are typically too small to locate on the ground or any time other than when they are an intermittent open or short circuit. One of the important challenges of testing live power distribution systems is the branched network problem, which creates overlapping reflections. We have determined that it is critical to have multiple sensors working simultaneously in most power distribution systems to determine which branch a fault is located on. The sensors must communicate between each other to better pinpoint the fault on the network, and we will be developing this capability for the spread spectrum time domain reflectometry (SSTDR) system. Work that is proposed for this project includes: development of software to locate faults with information from multiple sensors, development of a directional feed system, and combining communication with the sensing signals. This enhances the SSTDR test systems' ability to locate latent faults before they cause system failure. Benefits: Wiring maintenance is a significant challenge that costs the navy many millions of dollars in maintenance and lost flight hours. Faults on branched networks are difficult and costly to track down - especially if they are intermittent. One of the high payoff applications for this technology is in the monitoring of power distribution systems to locate small intermittent faults while the plane is in flight. These faults are typically too small to locate on the ground or any time other than when they are an intermittent open or short circuit. We plan to include the outcome of this research in the new arc fault circuit breakers, remote power controllers, and other safety critical devices. This technology will accelerate acceptance of these modern safety devices because intermittent and small faults that would otherwise cause a maintainer extreme frustration (no fault found when tested on the ground) will be found consistently and early. For instance: a wiring fault that could cause a fuel pod to jettison could be located and repaired before it erroneously dropped the fuel pod once or twice. Other commercial applications include wiring monitoring on utility power lines, air, land, and sea-based transportation, communications, and intrusion detection. Return