Patent ID: 8474320

Claim:
A method of locating a fault at a fault location in an electrical cable that is for electrical power transmission or distribution, wherein at least the fault location of the cable is covered by a cover medium, and wherein said method comprises: a) emitting an original acoustic signal from said fault, and allowing said original acoustic signal to propagate through said cover medium from said fault location to a detection location; b) using an acoustic sensor at said detection location, detecting a received signal that includes said original acoustic signal; c) comparing said received signal or a pre-processed version thereof with sample data stored in a memory, wherein said sample data comprises at least one sample data item selected from the group consisting of signal patterns, signal characteristics, signal characteristic sets, signal amplitudes, signal frequencies, signal feature sequences, signal heuristic models, signal sections, and complete signals of previously determined acoustic sample signals representative of acoustic signals emitted from sample faults in one or more sample cables; d) based on said comparing, determining that a portion of said received signal has a correspondence or at least a predetermined similarity to at least one said sample data item of said sample data, and thereby identifying said portion as said original acoustic signal included in said received signal; and e) using at least information obtained from said portion of said received signal to enable said locating of said fault.