Fault location using travelling waves

During the late 1940's engineers who had worked on 'radar' during the Second World War began to investigate whether pulse echo techniques could be used for fault location on power overhead lines. Several distinct types of equipment were developed and in the 1950's these were classified according to their mode of operation as types A, B, C and D. Here, the authors describe results obtained using a recently designed microprocessor based fault locator capable of operating in a type A, D, B3 and a special type C mode. the latter operates during line energisation and uses the travelling wave generated by the closure of the circuit breaker to locate the fault.<>