A Novel Approach to Utilize PLC to Detect Corroded and Eroded Segments of Power Transmission Lines

A great number of existing power transmission lines have aged throughout the world. A considerable proportion of them are located in the environments that exacerbate their corrosion and erosion process. In-time detection of defects necessitates the use of nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques. Scanning the lines with robots and helicopters are the methods in use. In this paper, we propose a new NDT technique that uses the elements of power-line carriers, generally for information communication purposes, to detect the possibly corroded and eroded segments of each phase along a transmission line. The proposed NDT technique is based on the backward-wave propagation produced by a change in the characteristic impedance of a power transmission line, resulting from corrosion and erosion. To demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach, "EMTPWorks" is used to perform simulations. It is shown that the proposed technique can locate the surface defects and estimate the severity of them in transmission line conductors.