A Gabor Transform-based universal fault detector for transmission lines

In this paper, a new fault detection scheme is proposed for transmission systems using Gabor transform (GT) for signal processing purposes instead of the conventional Fourier analysis methods. The detector uniquely detects both low impedance faults and high impedance ones with the same efficacy providing universal and precise fault detection for transmission systems. It utilizes GT as a feature extractor and artificial neural networks for pattern recognition and classification processes. The use of GT is motivated by the fact that the Gabor elementary functions have distinctively an optimal localization property in the joint time and frequency domains, which leads to optimal extraction of features from signals that is hard to be detected using conventional detectors. The generalization capability of the system allows detecting fault signals with very low fault currents and associated with, sharp and abrupt changes, dc decaying, non integer harmonics and non stationary quantities. The alternative transient program (ATP) is employed for the investigation phase. All simulation tests corroborate the superiority of the proposed detector for transmission system protection.