Best Way to Locate a Break Underground

What kind of electrical cable is inside the conduit and, how do you know the conduit is broken?

It's likely that the conduit was used to facilitate installation and cable replacement in the event it is ever necessary (as opposed to direct burial).

If you really do need to locate a break and the conduit end is accessible, a cabled camera or illuminated boroscope would probably be the best way (assuming there is adequate clearance between the cable and conduit).

Given accessibility to the conduit end and the ability to couple the transducer to the wall, an ultrasonic test might also be possible. A break would certainly reflect the ultrasonic wave and by scanning around the wall circumference, the characteristics and location relative to the sending end could be determined.

Cable fault locator. Google it many to choose from.

Git ya a twig. holt not too tight to tha ends. Now go to pacin about through the yard back and aforth til that ol twig gits ta twitchin and jumpin around. Banjo!- thar it is. Right whar the twig a tol ya it would be.

;)

Pack it in, Del.

Hello prahlcon@bellsouth.net:

What size conduit are you talking about? And is it just one cable , power, telephone? How deep and is it under concrete anywhere along what you know of its route?

What makes you think the conduit is broken anyway? Have you found water in a junction box?

If there is a junction box one the outside and the inside of the building wall, is it possible to disconnect the bit of cable either side and pull the cable out. And renew the suspected damaged conduit with new iron conduit where it goes below ground? Here in the UK our gas and electrical conduits, and water pipes can be replaced by pulling the old piece out and using air to push a new bit through the ready made hole. If the hole is the wrong shape compared to the new conduit the air is powerful enough to push the pipe etc through any soil, but clay is ideal.

Good luck and have a great new year.............

Find the access panel doors and take a look!! Oh, the conduit isn't in a concrete encasement channel? Well, in the future, instead of deep-trenching and placing naked electrical conduit all over here and there, follow the Plumbers lead in placing manholes every so many feet!!

Running an encasement channel under street and roadway sidewalks, medians, peninsulas, and/or shoulders leads to all kinds of better, safer, and easier maintenance and replacement, modifying and uprading, and adding new/more electrical, communications, and cabletv lines and conduits!!

Shorter distances of trenched lines from the street to the buildings, easy access for street lights, signs, transfer stations, etc; and an in-place anchorage for bike racks, sign poles, bus/train stop benches, and so on are just some of the advantages of multi-use continuous concrete encasement channels!! A very smart power and energy grid concept!!

Another bonus is the weather-tight and flood-proof access doors/panels at every 16-20 feet along the channel for maintenance, and in high wind/seismic regions, eyebolt holddowns can be added at each access door/panel for emergency strap tie-downs for cars, trucks, bicycles, etc!!

You can find some samples of multi-use encasement channels at website: Tor-Eggs-Tor Design Solutions, or at the link: http://www.dubephnx@tor-eggs-torclosed-nets.org. (Try the search engine type-in if the link is not getting you to the site. Another CR4 Blogger said he had to direct-type to the website.)

Hope this helps; Happy New years, Randy

Update: Fault Tracers, Oscillators, and TDR's all work for power lines that are deep-trenched, encased behind/within building walls, and encased within concrete multi-use encasement channels, FYI. All of these locations are currently in use to house electrical wiring, conduit, and cables, along with overhead power lines. Encasement channels are the rarest, today, but hopefully will be the "Smart Grid" of tommorrow!!

Clarify please, are you looking for the break in the conduit or the conductors?

if it is the conductors, you need to use a TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer). It is essentially a simplified radar set. it sends out frequency swept squarewave pulses along the conductor. Breaks and damaged insulation change the inherent impedance of the conductor and reflect back part of the ougoing signal. The TDR then calculates how far away the break is based on the speed of light in copper. There are some relatively cheap and simple ones sold for telecom/network use.

Here is another

And another

Regards.

Conductor break or leakage, short-circuit & other defects are detected from remote with TDR [Time domain Reflectrometery] Equipment.

All the organisations use it. It will show distance @ which fault is & type of fault like as said above

Kind regards

By chance below you can have a more details

You might be interested in: Time Domain Reflectometers,

An oscilloscope can be configured for use as a TDR, but you must know the characteristics of the cable involved for reference.I know it works on coaxial and shielded cable,but have never tried it on standard non-shielded electrical wiring.I do not think they control the capacitance and inductance of power wires very closely,because it is not necessary. If you need further info on configuring the scope, let me know, and I will dig out my old notes on this-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------HTRN------------------------------------------------------------

The old-fashioned way to locate where a PVC conduit break is, is to find one end of the conduit, pull on it gently and with enough force to slide the conduit out of it's bedding, and measure how far the pulled out conduit is. The break is that distance in from the end of the conduit.

Randy, the "eggster" Dube!!

Uhh. Come again?

What's the matter, Charley, a Construction Industry Old-Time Traditionalist/Veteran didn't fall for one of "them-there" "gotcha" question?!! I couldn't resist!!

God Bless and Speed; Randy.

Push a rod-shaped instrument into the end of the conduit and see where it meets mechanical resistance.