Acoustic Guided Wave Detection of Corrosion in Ground Rods

电力在我们的经济和社会中起着至关重要的作用，并通过变电站进行分配。这些变电站依靠电网接地系统来保护控制设备免受损坏，并在发生故障电流或雷击时确保人员安全。目前，挖掘是电力公司获取老化变电站接地网状况的主要方法，在许多情况下，这些变电站的使用年限超过50年。该项目的总体目标是确定创新的、可靠的、低成本的解决方案，以便在不需要挖掘的情况下访问变电站接地电网系统的完整性。改进的接地棒腐蚀检测传感系统的开发将提高配电系统的状态监测和维护配电系统的可靠性。这将有助于最大限度地减少由于设备突然故障造成的停电和中断，从而提高加拿大的电力安全。它还将为加拿大和马尼托巴省带来经济利益，因为它避免了与停电有关的经济生产力损失，并确保有能源出口到国际市场。我们的研究小组已经证明了基于声导波（AGW）的方法可以检测接地棒的腐蚀，而无需挖掘。在这种方法中，声信号被发射到接地电极中。当它们穿过电极时，当它们遇到棒上的腐蚀缺陷时，信号将被反射。反射波信号提供的信息可用于确定可能导致接地故障的缺陷的位置和严重程度。然而，这种方法的实用性可以大大提高。此次合作的目标是开发：1)可以从多个点（如抽油杆的侧面）访问抽油杆的换能器；2)可以在手持移动电池供电的嵌入式计算平台上运行的强大的自动化算法，以确定不同环境条件下的腐蚀程度。该提案还将产生独特的，高度专业化的HQP，并将在声导波腐蚀检测的新领域培训合作伙伴的员工。

Electricity plays a critical role in our economy and society and is distributed via electric power substations. These substations depend upon an electrical grounding grid system to protect control equipment from damage and ensure personnel safety in the event of a fault current or lightning strike. Currently, excavation is the main method used by electrical utilities to access the status of grounding grids in aging substations that are, in many cases, over 50 years old. The overall objective of this project is to identify innovative, robust, low-cost solutions for accessing the integrity of the grounding grid system in electrical power substations, without the need for excavation. The development of improved ground rod corrosion detection sensing systems will improve condition monitoring in and maintain the reliability of power distribution systems. This will improve Canadian power security by contributing to the minimization of power outages and disruptions due to sudden equipment failure. It will also provide an economic benefit to both Canada and Manitoba by avoiding the losses in economic productivity associated with power outages and by ensuring the availability of energy for export to international markets. Our research group has demonstrated approaches based on acoustic guided waves (AGW) can detect corrosion in ground rods, without excavation. In this method, acoustic signals are launched into the grounding electrodes. As they travel through the electrodes, the signals will be reflected when they encounter corrosion defects in the rod. The reflected wave signals provide information that can be used to determine the location and severity of defects that would cause grounding faults. However, the utility of this method can be greatly improved. The goal of this partnership is to develop: 1) transducers that can access the rod from multiple points, such as the side of the rod and 2) robust automated algorithms to determine the degree of corrosion with varying environmental conditions, that can run in a handheld mobile battery powered embedded computational platform. This proposal will also produce unique, highly specialized HQP and will educate partner staff in the new field of acoustic guided wave corrosion detection.