A laboratory investigation of electro-optic Kerr effect for detection of electric transmission line faults

A prototype Kerr cell has been constructed and tested for detecting and identifying faults by monitoring high voltages such as are found in electric power delivery systems. Simulated faults were generated under laboratory conditions and monitored by the Kerr cell. Preliminary analysis was done using analog-to-digital conversion of the detected waveforms with a single board microprocessor serially interfaced with a personal computer. The occurrence of faults is readily observed and results indicate that identification of fault types can be accomplished within less than one cycle of a standard sixty-cycle-per-second delivery system. With a dedicated analysis system such a technique may prove timely and economical in fault identification and location.>