Fault location is an important link for fault emergency treatment and power restoration of distribution network. The existing matrix algorithm based method has poor fault tolerance

and the optimization algorithm based method has slow speed. To solve the promblems above

a comprehensive approach for distribution network fault location

which combines the advantages of both methods

is proposed in this paper. Firstly

the matrix description of the distribution network is established through causal analysis

based on which the improved matrix criterion is established to identity the fault section rapidly under normal-alarm condition. Secondly

the matrix criterion is used to filter suspicious sections under distorted-alarm condition

based on which the optimization model is constructed to achieve fault location with strong fault tolerance. Finally

the effectiveness and fault tolerance of the proposed method are verified by many case simulations of different distribution networks.