Arc Fault Detection and Protection — Opportunities and Challenges

This paper presents a summary of a Honeywell collaborative IR&D project with University of Toronto on current arc fault detection and protection (AFDP) circuits and systems for the aerospace industry.

Arc fault detection and protection pose a significant challenge for airlines, aircraft manufacturers, the military, and regulatory agencies such as the FAA. Most of the AFDP research and technology development efforts to date have concentrated on the detection of parallel arc faults because of the ease of differentiating them from other operating conditions due to their high energy levels and potential for serious damage. In contrast, series arc fault currents are limited by the electrical load and are thus more difficult to detect.

The objectives of this paper are threefold: to provide additional new information on the characteristics of series arc faults; to provide a review and characterization of existing on-line methods of arc fault detection and protection; to summarize the critical challenges and opportunities for implementing on-line arc fault detection and protection for aerospace next generation electrical power systems including high voltage AC and variable frequency systems.