A DC Series Arc Fault Detection Method Using Line Current and Supply Voltage

In recent years, DC fault arc detection has been an electrical engineering research hotspot. At present, most proposed detection methods do not analyze the effects of fault arc electrical characteristics on both line current and supply voltage. Therefore, this study extensively analyzes variations of the line current and supply voltage because of DC arc faults based on the volt-ampere characteristics of DC arc faults. Then, a DC series arc fault detection method is proposed that comprehensively uses information on line current and supply voltage. An experimental platform for DC fault arc generation and detection was established using a DC-DC converter and a photovoltaic power supply as DC power supplies, and the proposed method was confirmed by experiments using this platform. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively distinguish arc faults and has the characteristics of clear physical meaning while maintaining a low amount of calculation.