[Patent] - Method, device and equipement for detecting an electric arc fault

The patent relates to the protection of an electrical installation against arc faults. In 2024, a significant proportion of fires are of electrical origin, despite the presence of equipment protecting against overcurrents and earth leakage.  In an electrical installation, you're never completely safe from contact problems in electrical outlets, or in switching and connecting devices. These false contacts produce an electric arc that keeps the electrical circuit closed, leading to major fire hazards. Protection against these faults requires reliable arc detection. However, it is very difficult to differentiate between arcing, which is a source of danger, and the normal electrical behavior of the installation. The invention presented here concerns a method and a device capable of detecting arcing with 100% accuracy in almost any situation. The method and solution described use an artificial neural network fed by a set of data characteristic of an electric arc and extracted from the line current measurement. This result is the fruit of two CIFRE thesis collaborations with the HAGER group.
 

Autors

Duc Vu, Serge Weber, Patrick Schweitzer, Nicolas Britsch