Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This application relates to a ground fault detection method and device for a system where a high common mode choke condition exists. 
         [0002]    Modem aircraft electrical systems receive electrical power from three-phase generators which are mechanically connected to the turbines of the aircraft engines. In typical systems the electricity produced by a generator may contain variations due to electrical noise or other factors. Such electricity may not be suitable for use with sensitive on-board electronics found in most aircraft. In order to condition the electricity, most applications connect the generator output to an inverter/conditioner which conditions the power to be in an acceptable form. A side effect of the conditioning is that a high common mode choke may be needed. Among other known effects, the common mode choke prevents current from exceeding a certain value, even in the case of a ground fault. 
         [0003]    A ground fault may occur for any number of reasons such as the mechanical touching of wires, failure of components, or improper connections. A phase to ground fault occurs where a direct electrical connection is created between one phase of a multiphase system and electrical ground. This results in a phase imbalance and may disrupt electrical systems and may cause physical damage to the electrical system. 
         [0004]    Various methods have been employed in an attempt to detect a ground fault so that the faulty generator may be isolated from the system and potential damage from the imbalance prevented. One scheme to detect a ground fault compares the current on each phase of the electrical system to a threshold, and when the current exceeds the threshold a phase to ground fault is determined to be present. Such a method will operate in any system without a common mode choke since the direct link to ground will short circuit the load and all the power will flow to ground, resulting in a large current spike. These systems measure the current output from the generator, and when the current on a single phase increases by a certain amount (typically 5 to 6 amperes) a phase to ground fault is determined to exist. The scheme may be inoperable when a high common mode choke is present since the common mode choke prevents an increase in current. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    Disclosed is a method for detecting a ground fault in a poly-phase electrical system where the total root mean square voltage of all the phases is computed, and the resulting value is compared to a threshold. If the resulting value exceeds the threshold then a ground fault is determined to have occurred. 
         [0006]    These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a simplified illustration of an airplane electrical system with a device according to the present application installed. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0010]      FIG. 4  is a logic diagram illustrating a logic circuit capable of performing a portion of the second embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0011]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a third embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0012]      FIG. 6  is a logic diagram illustrating a logic circuit capable of performing a portion of the third embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0013]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating a fourth embodiment of the disclosed method. 
           [0014]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart illustrating a method for calculating phase RMS voltage and total RMS voltage step of  FIG. 7 . 
           [0015]      FIG. 9  is a logic diagram illustrating a logic circuit capable of performing a portion of the fourth embodiment of the disclosed method. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0016]    A simplified airplane electrical system, such as the one illustrated in  FIG. 1 , generates power in a generator  20  which is mechanically connected to an engine  10 . The power created by the generator  20  is then sent to an inverter/conditioner  30 . The inverter/conditioner  30  modifies the electrical power output of the generator  20  to make the electrical power have more constant power attributes. After the electrical power has been conditioned the power is then sent through the aircraft&#39;s electrical distribution system  40  to onboard electrical devices/drives (such as sensors, gauges, meters, pumps, fans, etc.). 
         [0017]    The introduction of the inverter/conditioner  30  may also introduce a common mode choke. As described above, a common mode choke has the practical effect of limiting the possible current, which can potentially interfere with known ground fault detection schemes. The effect of the common mode choke on a ground fault detector can be addressed by introduction of a controller  50  and a voltage sensor  60  to the electrical system. The controller  50  can determine if a ground fault condition exists based on the total root mean square (RMS) voltage of the inverter/conditioner  30  AC input. 
         [0018]    An electrical system without a ground fault condition is a balanced system. In a balanced system the magnitude of each AC signal is identical, and each signal is phase shifted from the nearest phase by 360/N where N is the number of phases. By way of example, in a balanced three phase system the power output of Phase A will not be shifted, Phase B will be shifted by 120 degrees, and Phase C will be shifted by 240 degrees. As a result of the equal magnitude and proportional phase shifting at any given time the sum of Phases A, B, and C will be equal to zero in a theoretical balanced system. 
         [0019]    When a phase to ground fault is present in a power system, the system is thrown out of balance since one phase will have a direct connection to ground, while the other phases must still pass through a load and return to the generator. As a result of the imbalance, the total RMS voltage on the phase with a ground fault will be significantly greater than zero. A controller  50  and voltage sensors  60  may thereby be utilized to monitor the sum of the phase voltages to determine if the sum is above a certain threshold. When the sum exceeds the threshold, a ground fault is determined to be present on one of the phases. The generator with the phase to ground fault can then be identified and isolated from the electrical system. 
         [0020]      FIG. 2  illustrates an embodiment of the above described method for detecting a phase to ground fault based on RMS voltage. In the first step of the method, the voltage sensor  60  measures the inverter/conditioner  30  AC input voltage and sends the voltage measurements to the controller  50  (Step  102 ,  FIG. 2 ). In order to make a ground fault determination based on the voltage measurements, the controller  50  then calculates an RMS voltage for each phase (step  104 ,  FIG. 2 ). After the phase RMS voltages are calculated, the controller  50  calculates a sum of all of the phase voltages for the electrical system and derive its rms value, referred to as “total Vrms” (step  106 ,  FIG. 2 ). In most applications the electrical system will have three phases; however it is known that an alternate number of phases could be used. 
         [0021]    Once a total RMS voltage value has been calculated, the controller  50  compares the total RMS voltage value to a threshold value (step  108 ,  FIG. 2 ). If the total RMS voltage exceeds the threshold then a phase to ground fault is found (step  110 ,  FIG. 2 ). When a phase to ground fault is found, the controller  50  then either takes a predefined action (such as isolating the faulty inverter), or transmits a ground fault detected signal to a second controller  70 , which then allows the second controller  70  to take any necessary actions (step  112 ,  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0022]    In another embodiment, the RMS voltage value of each phase (i.e., step  104 ) can be determined by the method illustrated in  FIG. 3 . In the embodiment of  FIG. 3 , step  1104  first filters the raw RMS voltage to remove harmonic frequencies (step  1104 ( a )). The harmonic frequencies are removed because the harmonic frequencies are unnecessary in the determination of the phase RMS voltage, and can cause miscalculations when the phase voltages are summed. 
         [0023]    The filtered RMS voltage is then squared (step  1104 ( b )) and passed to a second filter. In the second filter the signal is again filtered (step  1104 ( c )) to remove harmonic frequencies. Since the second filter is after the squaring operation, any harmonics that were too small to be filtered in the first filter step  1104 ( a ) will have been squared and thus are large enough to be filtered by the second filter step  1104 ( c ). The signal is then square rooted (step  1104 ( d )), which returns the signal to its original amplitude without the harmonics. The signal is then sent to step  1106  of  FIG. 3  where the remainder of the method is identical to the method described in the first embodiment, and illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0024]    In another embodiment the total RMS voltage is computed for step  2106  of  FIG. 5  with the sub-steps illustrated. In the embodiment of  FIG. 5 , a raw voltage for each phase is received from step  2104  and initially filtered (step  2106 ( a )). The filtered voltages of each phase are then added together (step  2106 ( b )) and sent to a divider. The divider then divides the sum of the phase voltages by the total number of phases in the system (step  2106 ( c )). 
         [0025]    Next the output of the divider is squared (step  2106 ( d )) in order to make any harmonics that were too small for the first filter ( 2106 ( a )) larger. After being squared, the signal is again filtered (step  2106 ( e )). The output of the second filter (step  2106 ( e )) is square-rooted (step  2106 ( f )). Finally the total RMS voltage value is output (step  2106 ( g )) and sent to step  2108  ( FIG. 5 ). 
         [0026]      FIG. 6  illustrates a logic circuit  200  for a voltage summer which is capable of performing the steps shown in block  2106  of  FIG. 5 , and described above. The total RMS voltage evaluator  200  accepts a voltage input  206  of all three phases. The voltage inputs  206  are then filtered in low pass filters  202  to remove harmonics and leave a cleaner AC signal. The filtered voltage signals  232  are then sent to a summer  204 . The summer  204  combines the filtered voltage signals  232  and outputs a single raw combined voltage signal  234 . 
         [0027]    Due to the nature of the summer  204  the raw combined  3 -phase voltage signal  234  is larger than zero in the event of a ground fault. The raw combined voltage signal  234 , is sent to a divider  212 . The divider  212  additionally has a second input  236  equal to K. The divider  212  then divides the raw combined voltage by K and outputs a combined voltage value  238 . The K value for input  236  is the number of phases and may be determined by a signal from the controller  50 , the secondary controller  70 , predefined within the divider  212 , or set using any other known technique. 
         [0028]    For the combined voltage value  238  to be properly interpreted by the controller  50 , harmonics that survived the initial filter  202 , and that were introduced as a result of the summer  204  and the divider  212  operations, must be removed from the signal  238 . To remove the remaining harmonics the signal  238  is squared (in multiplier block  214 ), then sent through a filter  218 , and then square-rooted (in square-root block  222 ). The square root block  222  outputs a total RMS voltage signal  230  which is in a format that can be accepted and interpreted by the controller  50 . These operations remove the minor harmonics in the same manner as described in the second embodiment. The output  230  is then passed to step  2108  of  FIG. 5 . 
         [0029]    Another embodiment of the ground fault detection method combines the phase RMS voltage calculations (step  104 ,  FIG. 2 ) with the total RMS voltage calculations (step  106 ,  FIG. 2 ), resulting in the method illustrated in  FIGS. 7 ,  8 . After the raw measurements are received (step  3102 ,  FIG. 7 ), the measurements are filtered (step  502 ) to remove harmonic frequencies. Next the filtered signals are copied at junction  504  and separate operations are performed on the signals simultaneously (as illustrated in  FIG. 8 ). 
         [0030]    The first operation, used to calculate phase RMS voltage, of the embodiment of  FIG. 7  squares the phase RMS voltages (step  506 ) from junction  504 . Then, the RMS voltage signals are again filtered (step  508 ). After the second filter the signal is combined with the output of the second operation and square rooted (step  510 ). After being square rooted the voltage signals are output to step  3108  of  FIG. 7  (step  512 ). 
         [0031]    The second operation, used to calculate total RMS voltage of the embodiment of  FIG. 7 , sums the filtered signals from junction  504  (step  514 ). The summed signal is then divided by the total number of phases in the system (step  516 ), and the resulting signal is squared (step  518 ). After being squared the signal is again filtered (step  520 ) and combined with the output of the first operation where the signal is square-rooted (step  510 ) and output to step  3108  of  FIG. 7  (step  512 ). 
         [0032]    While it is known that the above described methods can be performed using a number of different controllers and logic circuits, disclosed below are sample logic circuits which could be used by the controller  50  to perform the above described methods. 
         [0033]    The logic circuit  400  of  FIG. 4  is capable of performing step  1104  of the embodiment of  FIG. 3 . The logic circuit initially accepts raw AC phase voltage measurements  402  from the sensor  60  and passes them through a low pass filter  404 . The signal is then sent to a multiplier  406 . The multiplier  406  accepts the filtered AC input signal twice and multiplies them together, resulting in a squaring operation. The squaring operation additionally squares minor harmonics that were too small to be removed by the initial low-pass filter  404 . 
         [0034]    The signal is then sent through a second low-pass filter  408  where the remaining harmonics are removed, resulting in a clean signal that can be properly read by a controller  50 . Finally the signal is square rooted in logic block  410 , which results in an output signal  412  equal to the phase RMS voltage without additional harmonics. The output signal  412  can then be passed to step  106  of  FIG. 3  and a total RMS voltage may be calculated based on the output signal  412 . 
         [0035]    A logic circuit which is a combination of the logic circuits of  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 6 , and capable of performing the method of  FIGS. 7 ,  8 , is disclosed in  FIG. 9 . The Logic Circuit of  FIG. 9  utilizes a combined first low pass filter  404 , and then separates into two separate sub-circuits corresponding to each of the logic circuits  400 ,  200  of  FIGS. 4 and 6 . These circuits have identical components and operate in the same manner as the logic circuits  200 ,  400  described above. 
         [0036]    The foregoing description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in any limiting sense. A worker of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that certain modifications, such as utilizing a different logic circuit within a controller, would come within the scope of this invention. For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.

Technology Category: h