AC arc fault detection based on Mahalanobis Distance

Arc faults generally cause a significant amount of heat and high temperature, thus leading to a potential fire. In order to ensure the security of wiring system, it is needed to be detected. A method to detect AC arc fault based on Mahalanobis distance is proposed in this paper. The characteristics of both normal current and arc current are analyzed, and then Mahalanobis distance is obtained through certain steps. Taking series arc fault occurring at 115V, but at different frequencies with pure resistor load as an example, the feasibility of the method is verified by simulation and experiment. Experimental results show that no nuisance trip exists when deloading and loading.