Detection of Electric Arcs in 42 Volt Automotive Systems

Joseph Luis Markus Zahn Thomas Keim

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems

Abstract Frequency Analysis of Arcing Current Spectra of Automotive Electric Loads

The increasing electrical power demands of automobiles has led
to the development of a new 42 V standard. One danger at 42 V is •DC rise in current is ignored and a 3rd order polynomial fit is subtracted
stable electrical arcing that can damage the arcing conductors from the arcing current to obtain zero centered arcing transients •Measured waveforms of
and cause a fire. This work evaluates using Fourier analysis of current during electrical loads
the arcing current to detect electric arcs. Fourier analysis is contain large transients
performed on the average of ten arc spectra. This average is comparable to arcing
compared to the frequency spectra of current during vehicle transients
electric load operation. Results show that there are no easily
identifiable features universally present in stable arcs. Also, •The PWM of loads such as
because the amplitudes of the electric load spectra are of the lights are easily recognizable
same order, additional research is needed to find an improved but transients such as door
method of identifying arcs. lock operation can be as
random as current during
Generating Arcs arcing.

• A computer controlled DC motor is used to make intermittent contact •Example: the periodogram
between a steel blade and a test wire of a door lock current
• The parting of the conductors generates a stable drawn arc transient has some low
• Circuit current is measured by measuring the voltage drop across a frequency structure with
shunt resistor slightly more random high
frequency content

•The amplitude of the door

•The spectrum of one arc lock spectrum is of the
transient shows content at all same order of the arcing
frequencies transients, making
amplitude differentiation
•Peaking at some frequencies difficult
occurs differently from event
to event
Future Work
•Spectrum varies randomly
throughout frequency band, •Look into other methods of electronic detection such as using bandpass
more so at higher filtering techniques as well as fractal analysis of the random time
frequencies
• Typical current waveform: (1) a step up in DC current as the battery is domain variations of arcing current
shorted through a small resistance (∼20 m? ) (2) a current drop as the
conductors separate and arcing begins (3) arcing current continues •Characterize each electrical load’s frequency spectrum and use lookup
•The average periodogram
until conductor gap length is large enough for the arc to extinguish tables to differentiate load transients from arcing transients
over 10 arc events shows
• Result of 42 V arcing: periodic arcing in which the RMS current is
lower than the protective fuse rating causes substantial damage to the
broadband energy content
Partial Reference List
arcing conductors •Spectrum falls as 1/f but Wu, Alan, Investigation of Electric Arcs in 42-volt Automotive
does not show any other Systems, MEng Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
universally identifiable June 2001
features Boksiner, J., Silverman, E.J., Arc Detection for Telephone DC
Power Distribution Systems, IEEE Telecommunications Energy
•Further analysis shows that Conference, 1993

Acknowledgments
low frequency components
depend on experimental
factors such as motor speed Professor George Verghese, Alan Wu, Wayne Ryan
Project funded by the MIT/Industry Consortium on Advanced
Electrical/Electronic Components and Systems