A scheme for detecting DC series arc faults in low voltage distribution system

It is well known that series arc faults in Low Voltage DC (LVDC) distribution system occur at unintended points of discontinuity within an electrical circuit. These faults can make circuit breakers not respond timely due to low fault current. It, therefore, is needed to detect the series fault properly for protecting circuits from electrical fires. This paper presents a scheme to detect the series arc fault using Wavelet Singular Value Decomposition (WSVD). In this paper, the algorithm is designed by using RMS value of Singular value of Approximation (SA) and Sum of the absolute value of Detail (SD), which are results of WSVD process. LVDC distribution system including AC/DC and DC/DC converter is modeled to verify the proposed scheme using ElectroMagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) software. Simulation results according to various conditions clearly show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.