DIAGNOSTIC-TECHNIQUE FOR POWER-SYSTEMS UTILIZING INFRARED THERMAL IMAGING

A real-time diagnostic and control technique has been developed for us e in electronic circuits whose thermal signature can be correlated to their operating status. Successful implementation of this diagnostic s cheme in proof-of-concept experiments required the incorporation of se veral technological issues into a complete system that has the capabil ity to detect potential fault modes in the system under observation, I ncluded was the ability to 1) use infrared optical fibers to view comp onents within enclosures and complex geometries, 2) obtain the thermal profile of the system, 3) process and analyze thermal data, 4) implem ent a simulated artificial neural network to determine the particular condition or fault corresponding to the thermal signature, and 5) perf orm any necessary corrective action in a timely manner, Infrared optic al fibers, routed from individual components to an external array of c onnectors, were used to collect and transmit energy radiated from thos e components, An infrared thermal imaging camera was utilized to scan the fiber array and produce an image corresponding to the thermal prof ile; thus, the thermal signature was obtained in a manner which was ne ither thermally nor electrically intrusive, Temperature data was then transmitted via an interface bus from the camera system to the control computer where information was converted into a form suitable for inp ut into a trained artificial neural network.