PONE-D-25-36102Magnetic Field Sensing for 2D Fault Localization in Underground Power CablesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Qamar,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 05 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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6. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise. 

Additional Editor Comments:

This paper describes an approach based on magnetic field sensing for 2D fault localization in underground power cables. The conceptual framework and the implementation needs to be proven as novel and requires further enhancement. It is required to use more recent references for positioning your contribution well within the existing research.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Comments to the Authors of the PONE-D-25-36102 manuscript are as follows:

1. The opinion of this reviewer is that this manuscript proposes a new method for locating various types of faults in underground power cables. However, none of the three faults considered has an experimental background that could be given for at least one of the three faults. Specifically, this study lacks an adequate experimental background. Finally, any new method must be validated using relevant experimental data.

2. There are similar methods in the literature that the Authors did not use in the literature review. Why? For example, the following publications: 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2297195, 10.1061/41202(423)242, etc.

3. Novelties and scientific contributions must be contrasted to the relevant state-of-the-art and highlighted in an appropriate manner.

4. A reference should be provided in the list of references for the version of COMSOL used.

5. The accuracy of the FEM-based models used must be verified by means of the results of appropriate FE mesh independence tests. Without these tests the FEM-based model can be regarded as incomplete. How to conduct these tests can be found in some papers recently published.

6. The following sentence: "This leakage current can cause insulation failure and could become a major fault in the near future." is not based on research results and represents the Authors' opinion and should be modified accordingly.

7. Some abbreviations are defined more than once.

8. The grounding resistance is said to be assumed. Specifically, it says: "The grounding resistance is assumed to be 0.294534 Ohm". How was this value selected or estimated?

9. The conclusions must be improved in terms of scientific significance and quantified additionally based on the obtained results.

Reviewer #2: The paper explains three types of faults in Underground Power Cables (UPC): LGF, LCF, and LLF, and proposes an inverse solution algorithm based on Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL) for fault location. However, the paper lacks comparative experiments, making it difficult to assess the proposed method's effectiveness against existing techniques. The innovation of the method is limited, and the paper does not sufficiently highlight how it improves upon current approaches. Additionally, the writing quality and structure could be improved, particularly in the explanation of the methodology and results. The algorithm is validated only through simulations, with no real-world experimental verification, and there is insufficient explanation of the magnetic field sensing equipment used. Therefore, the paper is not recommended for publication. The detailed comments are as follow:

1、The magnetic field sensing equipment mentioned in the abstract is only validated through simulations in this paper, with no experimental verification using actual devices. Additionally, there is insufficient explanation of the equipment used in the study.

2、The use of abbreviations throughout the paper is inconsistent and confusing.

3、The method proposed in this paper lacks comparative experiments, making it difficult to directly demonstrate the algorithm’s time complexity, power consumption, and the high cost associated with the large number of devices required.

4、The line charts used in Figures 20 and 21 are not suitable for effectively representing the specific errors. It is recommended to replace them with other types of graphs for better clarity.

5、The fault points described in the paper are at 100m, 500m, and 1000m. If all three points were to fail simultaneously, it is unclear whether the proposed method can accurately locate the faults. Further clarification or testing on this scenario would be necessary.

6、In the paper, the tables present the values of Xact and Xcal along with their corresponding errors. However, the percentage error does not effectively reflect the precision of the proposed method. Additionally, there is a lack of comparative algorithms and their results, making it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Reviewer #3: This paper presented a magnetic field sensing for Fault Location in underground cables. The research is interesting. However, there are some concerns raised by this reviewer. General comments are as follows.

(1) In introduction part, the authors stated that the proposed method is cost effective. However, there is no verification on this statement.

(2) The paper is heavy on theoretical analysis but short on practice. How to measure the magnetic field? What kind of sensor is applicable to achieve magnetic field sensing for fault location? The impacts of environmental interferences (noises, electromagnetic, sampling interferences, etc.) should be considered.

(3) What are the differences between LGF and LCF? The detailed fault developing mechanisms for the two types of faults are required.

(4) In (2) and (13), the fault resistance Rg commonly vary with fault conditions. The reason why it is set as a constant should be explained.

(5) Why magnetic field is used? Why not measure current or voltage signals? There are many sensors for electrical signals in practice but few sensors for field quantities. A comparison work is needed.

(6) COMSOL is used to conduct the simulations. However, it is just an offline simulation tool. The reason why not use field data should be explained.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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PONE-D-25-36102R1Magnetic Field Sensing for 2D Fault Localization in Underground Power CablesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Qamar,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 06 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

1. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise. 

2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

The revised version has been improved to include all comments of the reviewers. However, some minor improvements are still needed. Please have a careful look at the manuscript to respond to the remaining queries.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. The following sentence "The experimental setup for LLF localization using the proposed magnetic field sending

method is shown in Fig. 25." should be corrected.

2. The results of FE mesh independence tests do not verify the accuracy of the proposed method. Authors are requested to perform these tests using papers published in the following journals: Applied Thermal Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Thermal Science, etc.

3. In the following sentence "In these studies, the magnetic flux density of live cables was utilized to determine both the horizontal position and the vertical depth of the cable.", the term "live cables" should be replaced with any other more convenient term.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Magnetic Field Sensing for 2D Fault Localization in Underground Power Cables

PONE-D-25-36102R2

Dear Dr. Qamar,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Zeashan Hameed Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

After the second review cycle, the authors have addressed all the major discrepancies and the paper is acceptable in the present form.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: There are no additional comments for the Authors. All the comments from the previous round of review were addressed as requested by this reviewer.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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