PARAMETER TESTING OF MULTI-BRANCHED SHIELDED CABLES

CABLE SHIELDS ARE AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE HARDENING OF SYSTEMS TO ELECTRO- MAGNETIC ENVIRONMENTS. THE INTEGRITY OF THESE SHIELDS IS VERY OFTEN CRUCIAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF A CRITICAL SYSTEM TO AN EMF ENVIRONMENT, FOR EXAMPLE. BECAUSE CABLE SHIELD INTEGRITY IS FREQUENCY DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE VISUALLY, AN ALTERNATIVE SIMPLE APPROACH IS REQUIRED. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO DEVELOP A PROCEDURE WHEREBY CABLE SHIELD INTEGRITY CAN BE OBSERVED IN THE FIELD OR DEPOT LEVEL. A METHOD BASED ON MULTICONDUCTOR CABLE THEORY IS PROPOSED, WHICH INVOLVES INJECTING CURRENT AT SOME CABLE HARNESS LOCATIONS, AND OBSERVING VOLTAGE RESPONSES ELSEWHERE. STATISTICAL VARIATIONS IN CABLE PARAMETERS WILL ALSO BE ADDRESSED.