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A voltage sags matching to locate a fault for underground distribution network is presented in this paper. Firstly the method identifies the faulted section by matching a voltage sags measured at the primary substation during a fault with pre-developed voltage sag database. From the identified faulted section, the distance of a fault from sending-end is calculated. The problem of multiple sections is addressed by ranking approach. Test results on an underground distribution network shows most faults can be located by the first attempt within high accuracy distance. Only few faulted sections found by the second attempt. Since the method is using only voltage sag data, monitored at the primary substation, the method is considers economical to be implemented for a rural distribution network.

In power system networks, automatic fault diagnosis techniques of switchgears with high accuracy and less time consuming are important. In this work, classification of abnormal location in switchgears is proposed using hybrid gravitational search algorithm (GSA)-artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The measurement data were obtained from ultrasound, transient earth voltage, temperature and sound sensors. The AI classifiers used include artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM). The performance of both classifiers was optimized by an optimization technique, GSA. The advantages of GSA classification on AI in classifying the abnormal location in switchgears are easy implementation, fast convergence and low computational cost. For performance comparison, several well-known metaheuristic techniques were also applied on the AI classifiers. From the comparison between ANN and SVM without optimization by GSA, SVM yields 2% higher accuracy than ANN. However, ANN yields slightly higher accuracy than SVM after combining with GSA, which is in the range of 97%-99% compared to 95%-97% for SVM. On the other hand, GSA-SVM converges faster than GSA-ANN. Overall, it was found that combination of both AI classifiers with GSA yields better results than several well-known metaheuristic techniques., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This paper proposes an approach to accurately estimate the impedance value of a high impedance fault (HIF) and the distance from its fault location for a distribution system. Based on the three-phase voltage and current waveforms which are monitored through a single measurement in the network, several features are extracted using discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The extracted features are then fed into the optimized artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate the HIF impedance and its distance. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is employed to optimize the parameters of the ANN to enhance the performance of fault impedance and distance estimations. Based on the simulation results, the proposed method records encouraging results compared to other methods of similar complexity for both HIF impedance values and estimated distances., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

It is important to predict the incipient fault in transformer oil accurately so that the maintenance of transformer oil can be performed correctly, reducing the cost of maintenance and minimise the error. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) has been widely used to predict the incipient fault in power transformers. However, sometimes the existing DGA methods yield inaccurate prediction of the incipient fault in transformer oil because each method is only suitable for certain conditions. Many previous works have reported on the use of intelligence methods to predict the transformer faults. However, it is believed that the accuracy of the previously proposed methods can still be improved. Since artificial neural network (ANN) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) techniques have never been used in the previously reported work, this work proposes a combination of ANN and various PSO techniques to predict the transformer incipient fault. The advantages of PSO are simplicity and easy implementation. The effectiveness of various PSO techniques in combination with ANN is validated by comparison with the results from the actual fault diagnosis, an existing diagnosis method and ANN alone. Comparison of the results from the proposed methods with the previously reported work was also performed to show the improvement of the proposed methods. It was found that the proposed ANN-Evolutionary PSO method yields the highest percentage of correct identification for transformer fault type than the existing diagnosis method and previously reported works.

This study examines a new approach to selecting the locations of unified power flow controllers (UPFCs) in power system networks based on a dynamic analysis of voltage stability. Power system voltage stability indices (VSIs) including the line stability index (LQP), the voltage collapse proximity indicator (VCPI), and the line stability index (Lmn) are employed to identify the most suitable locations in the system for UPFCs. In this study, the locations of the UPFCs are identified by dynamically varying the loads across all of the load buses to represent actual power system conditions. Simulations were conducted in a power system computer-aided design (PSCAD) software using the IEEE 14-bus and 39- bus benchmark power system models. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. When the UPFCs are placed in the locations obtained with the new approach, the voltage stability improves. A comparison of the steady-state VSIs resulting from the UPFCs placed in the locations obtained with the new approach and with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE), which are static methods, is presented. In all cases, the UPFC locations given by the proposed approach result in better voltage stability than those obtained with the other approaches.

Straightening of curved canals is one of the most common procedural errors in endodontic instrumentation. It can lead to ledging, perforation, and stripping of the canal. The problem is commonly encountered when root canal preparation is performed in curved molars. The purpose of this study was to compare the results of root canal preparation by undergraduate dental students using traditional stainless-steel 0.02 taper K files to results obtained using rotary nickel-titanium 0.04 taper files. One hundred ninety six extracted teeth comprising maxillary and mandibular first molars were used. Preoperative and postoperative radiographs of each tooth were taken. Graduate endodontic residents evaluated the radiographs according to the evaluation criteria used by the endodontic department. The presence of errors--such as stripping, perforation, ledging, transportation, zipping, and instrument breakage--was recorded by examining the radiographs.