The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.

com/researchregister

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0332-1649.htm

COMPEL 23,3

A quasi-genetic algorithm for searching the dangerous areas generated by a grounding system
Marcello Sylos Labini and Arturo Covitti
Department of Electrotechnics and Electronics, Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy

724

Giuseppe Delvecchio
University of Bari, Italy

Ferrante Neri
Department of Electrotechnics and Electronics, Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy
Keywords Programming, Algorithmic languages, Soil testing Abstract Sets out a method for determining the dangerous areas on the soil surface. The touch voltages are calculated by a Maxwells subareas program. The search for the areas in which the touch voltages are dangerous is performed by a suitably modied genetic algorithm. The tness is redened so that the genetic algorithm does not lead directly to the only optimum solution, but to a certain number of solutions having pre-arranged goodness characteristics. The algorithm has been called quasi-genetic algorithm and has been successfully applied to various grounding systems.

COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Vol. 23 No. 3, 2004 pp. 724-732 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0332-1649 DOI 10.1108/03321640410540656

Introduction As is well-known, a grounding system leaking a fault current IF generates touch voltages UT( P ) in all the points P of the soil surface. These voltages can be dangerous. It is therefore very important to search for the areas of the soil surface where the touch voltages are greater than the maximum permissible touch voltage UTp, this value being xed by Standards on the basis of the time tF during which the fault persists. In previous papers, the authors have dened two optimization methods for determining the point of the soil surface in which the touch voltage UT( P ) is maximum: the rst one consists of a stochastic method followed, in cascade, by a deterministic method (Covitti et al., 2002a, b); the second method is based on the genetic algorithms (Delvecchio et al., 2003). In this paper, the same authors do not suggest the search for the point of the soil surface in which the touch voltage is maximum but they suggest the search for all the soil surface areas in which the touch voltages UT( P ) are higher than the permissible touch voltage UTp. In this way, the designing of the grounding system is less hard since it is no more necessary to design a completely safe grounding system; on the contrary, we need to determine, during the designing, only the dangerous areas and then make these areas beyond the reach of people. The determination of the dangerous areas is carried out by a quasi-genetic algorithm. It is still based on the genetic algorithms (De Jong et al., 1997; Mitchell, 1996; Rudnicki, 2000), but a new formulation of the tness has been worked out, so that there is no more the need to dene an individual as being the best but the individuals are classied as good and bad. The individuals must have some pre-arranged goodness requirements so as to survive.

The calculation of the touch voltage UT( P ) by the Maxwells subareas method A good method for calculating the touch voltages UT( P ) generated by a grounding electrode leaking a known fault current IF is the Maxwells subareas method (Sylos Labini et al., 2003). It, briey, consists in subdividing the electrode into a suitable number N of elementary parts (subareas), in calculating the voltages U 1 ; U 2 ; . . .; U N taken by each subarea and produced by all the leaking subareas, and in imposing the equipotentiality of the grounding electrode. The voltage taken by the generic subarea i is given by: U i Ri;1 I 1 Ri;2 I 2 Ri;N I N i 1; 2; . . .; N 1

A quasi-genetic algorithm

725

where Ii are the currents (or subcurrents) leaked by each subarea; Ri,j is the voltage coefcient between the subareas i and j. Each Ri,j can be calculated by the formulas given by Sylos Labini et al. (2003) on the basis of the voltage generated by the inducing subarea j and by its electrical image j0 in the barycenter of the induced subarea i. If we impose the equipotentiality of the whole electrode (i.e. if we impose U 1 U 2 U N U E ; U E being the earthing voltage) the Maxwells method leads us to write the following system of N 1 linear equations: ( Ri;1 I 1 Ri;2 I 2 Ri;N I N U E i 1; 2; . . .; N 2 I1 I2 IN IF The solution of this system gives the earthing voltage UE and also the N subcurrents Ii. These subcurrents are needed for calculating the voltage U( P ) in any point of the soil surface. In fact, the contribution, in terms of voltage, given by each subarea j and by its electrical image j0 in a point P of the soil surface can be calculated by the equation: U j P R P ; j I j 3

where RP, j is the voltage coefcient existing between the inducing subarea j and the induced point P (RP, j can be calculated by the formulas given by Sylos Labini et al. (2003)). Consequently, the total voltage U( P ) due to all the subareas can be calculated as the sum of the voltages generated in P by each subarea and by its electrical image by the formula: U P
N X j1

U j P :

Once the voltage U( P ) is known, it is possible to calculate the touch voltage in P by the well-known formula: U T P U E 2 U P : 5

The quasi-genetic algorithm From what we have seen in the previous section, for a given grounding system that injects in the soil a known fault current IF the touch voltage in a generic point P of the soil surface is a function UT( P ) of the point P, that is to say, it is a function of the

COMPEL 23,3

726

x and y co-ordinates of this point. In a similar way, the permissible touch voltage UTp can be considered as being a function of the point P of the soil surface, this function taking the constant value UTp according to the x and y co-ordinates of P. Consequently, it is possible to draw attention to the probable danger of the leaking grounding system on the basis of the relative position, in the space, of both the surface representing the function U T x; y and the plane UTp. The following three cases can occur: (1) The plane UTp is above the surface of U T x; y (Figure 1); (2) The plane UTp is below the surface of U T x; y (Figure 2); (3) The plane UTp intersects the surface of U T x; y (Figure 3). In case (1) all touch voltages are smaller than UTp, that is no point of the soil surface is dangerous. Consequently, the grounding system designed on the basis of the value UTp is not dangerous. In case (2) all the points of the soil surface are dangerous. The grounding system under examination is dangerous, and so a new grounding system must be designed. In case (3), there are only some areas of the soil surface in which the touch voltage exceeds the permissible value UTp. In this case there is no need to design another

Figure 1. A well-designed grounding system: there is no dangerous point on the soil surface

Figure 2. A badly-designed grounding system: all the points on the soil surface are dangerous

A quasi-genetic algorithm

727
Figure 3. Four dangerous areas generated by the grounding system

grounding system, provided that the dangerous areas existing on the soil surface are carefully found. In other words, it is necessary to determine on the soil surface the points obtained as orthogonal projections of the intersection points between the surface UT( P ) and the plane UTp (Figure 3). The determination of the dangerous areas is carried out by a quasi-genetic algorithm. As is well-known, the genetic algorithms are methods based on the analogy with the natural systems. These genetic algorithms have often been implemented in order to search for the optimum solution of a given problem (De Jong et al., 1997). The method suggested in this paper, i.e. the quasi-genetic algorithm, is partly identical to the genetic algorithm methods but it does not search for the only individual having a better tness compared to other individuals, because it searches for various sets of individuals, each set having a touch voltage which is higher than a pre-xed value. Briey, the quasi-genetic algorithm consists of the following. A rst sampling of the function UT( P ) is done at random. This sampling concerns a small number Np of points P of the soil surface. These points represent the population to which we apply the genetic algorithm method. Each point P x; y; in terms of genetic algorithms, is an individual having x and y as chromosomes. The x and y co-ordinates of each point P are expressed in binary numbers. The binary numbers are considered to be string variables, so they undergo, in each iteration, cross-over and mutation. The authors have chosen the one-point crossover technique and established that each individual thus generated has a 4 percent probability of undergoing a mutation. Regarding cross-over, the probability that cross-over will occur is equal to 100 percent. In other terms, in each iteration, N cross-over always occur, where N is a number chosen by us a priori. Therefore, the choice of the pairs of chromosomes which undergo cross-over occurs, in a stochastic way, N times each iteration. This way of choosing the pairs of chromosomes implies that the same chromosome can generate individuals several times in the same iteration. At each iteration, the population of individuals is made up of parents as well as of newly generated individuals. For each iteration, the touch voltage of each individual (or point P) is calculated. This value is then compared with the permissible touch voltage UTp. The individuals whose UT( P ) is lower than the value UTp are killed,

COMPEL 23,3

728

which means that they are removed from the memory location, while the individuals (dangerous points) whose UT( P ) exceeds the value UTp survive. Moreover, in the same iteration, the data are further processed by means of a virtual lter that removes all the duplicate individuals, that is all the newly generated points P x; y having the same genetic makeup (i.e. the same co-ordinates x and y, respectively) of the individuals which already belong to the population of dangerous points. If the method now explained is iterated an adequate number of times it allows the determination of all the dangerous areas existing in the domain under examination. The procedure allows the population to grow or to contract according to need: the nal population can have a number of individuals different from the initial one, this number being smaller or greater than the initial number according to the number of dangerous areas that really exist on the soil surface. In short, it is worth noting that in this paper the tness function has been dened by the authors in a different way compared to Delvecchio et al. (2003). In fact, in Delvecchio et al. (2003) the tness of each individual (or point P) was the touch voltage in P; now the tness takes only the values 0 and 1, according to whether UT( P ) is smaller or greater than UTp, respectively. Numerical results Some results concerning two rectangular meshed grounding grids are given as an example in this paper. The rst grounding grid is a classic grid, that is made up of regular meshes; it is 60 40 m in size and has six regular meshes. The second grid is the same grid studied by Huang et al. (1995); it is 80 60 m in size and is made up of ve horizontal conductors and seven vertical conductors; this grid has 24 unequally spaced meshes which are wider at the center and narrower at the grounding systems edges. We will call the rst grounding grid classic and the second one unequally spaced later on; this way of indicating the latter has been taken from Huang et al. (1995). The unequally spaced grounding system has the following advantages compared to the classic one (Otero et al., 1998). If we consider two meshed rectangular grounding grids (one is classic and the other is unequally spaced) having both the same perimeter and the same number of conductors according to the two directions, burying to the same depth in the same soil and leaking the same fault current IF, the unequally spaced grounding grid generates touch voltages which are smaller compared to those generated by the classic grounding grid; moreover, the surface of the touch voltages UT( P ) generated by the unequally spaced grounding grid is atter than that generated by the classic grounding grid. In other words, the highest values of touch voltages generated by the unequally spaced grounding grid are very similar to each other, which does not occur in the case of the classic one (compare Figures 4 and 5). The two grounding grids under examination are both made up of cylindrical conductors having a section S 50 mm2 ; are buried to a depth h 0:5 m in a homogeneous soil having resistivity r 100 V m: Moreover, I F 100 and 400 A are the fault currents leaked by the classic and unequally spaced grounding grids, respectively. U Tp 37 and 58 V are the permissible touch voltages for the classic and unequally spaced grounding grids, respectively. Regarding the soil surface areas under study, we have considered the following areas:

in respect of the classic meshed grid, a rectangular area whose sides are 61 41 m (Figure 4); in respect of the unequally spaced grid, a rectangular area whose sides are 80 60 m (Figure 5).

A quasi-genetic algorithm

As for the number of initial points to take into account (that is, the number of individuals constituting the initial population) N p 100 points has been chosen. With regard to the number of cross-over to carry out in each iteration, N 100 cross-over has been chosen. Moreover, a 4 percent probability of mutation has been set. The results obtained by an Intel CELERON processor having a clock frequency equal to 1,000 MHz, relating to the two cases, are given in Table I and Figures 6 and 7, and in Table II and Figures 8 and 9, respectively. For each grounding system ve simulations have been carried out and for each of them the number of iterations has been xed equal to N iter 10: Figures 7 and 9 and Tables I and II show that, for both grounding electrodes, the quasi-genetic algorithm converges quickly towards the dangerous areas, with a very small number of iterations and extremely low calculation times.

729

Figure 4. Voltages on the soil surface (in volt) generated by a classic grid (60 40 m in size, with six regular meshes)

Figure 5. Voltages on the soil surface (in volt) generated by an unequally spaced grid (80 60 m in size, with 24 unequally spaced meshes)

COMPEL 23,3

It is worth noting that a further increase in the number of iterations does not involve advantages over the determination of dangerous areas and calculation times. Conclusions The algorithm carried out allows to foresee, in the designing stage, all the probable dangerous areas that the grounding system can generate on the soil surface. It follows

730

Simulations carried out Table I. Classic meshed grounding grid (Niter 10) 1 2 3 4 5

Number of points found 752 747 786 767 764

Calculation times (s) 8.34 7.90 9.00 8.54 8.23

Figure 6. Classic grid: population at the third iteration

Figure 7. Classic grid: population at the tenth iteration

that this algorithm turns out to be very useful since the forecast of the dangerous areas allows a considerable saving in the costs needed to make the same grounding system. On the basis of the various designing tests, it may be inferred that the quasi-genetic algorithm is particularly effective not only for the low calculation times but also for the reliability of the results. From a scientic point of view, the authors have given a further contribution compared to the genetic algorithm method previously dened by the same authors. In fact, the new algorithm is still based on the characteristics peculiar to the
Simulations carried out 1 2 3 4 5 Number of points found 558 549 576 584 539 Calculation times (s) 5.71 5.72 6.13 6.19 5.64

A quasi-genetic algorithm

731

Table II. Unequally spaced meshed grounding grid (Niter 10)

Figure 8. Unequally spaced grid: population at the third iteration

Figure 9. Unequally spaced grid: population at the tenth iteration

COMPEL 23,3

evolutionary programming; however it does not aim at optimizing an objective function but at searching for sets of dangerous points.
References Covitti, A., Delvecchio, G., Marzano, C. and Sylos Labini, M. (2002a), A global optimization method for designing meshed grounding grids, Proceedings CEFC 2002, Tenth Biennial IEEE Conference on Electromagnetic Field Computation, 16-19 June, Perugia, Italy, p. 321. Covitti, A., Delvecchio, G., Sylos Labini, M. and Verde, D. (2002b), A global optimization method for determining the maximum touch voltage generated by grounding systems, Studies in Applied Electromagnetic and Mechanics, IOS Press, Amsterdam, Vol. 22, pp. 373-8. De Jong, K., Fogel, D.B. and Schwefel, H.P. (1997), A history of evolutionary computation, in ck, Th., Fogel, D.B. and Michalewicz, Z. (Eds), Handbook of Evolutionary Computation, Ba Oxford University Press, New York, NY, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, pp. A2.3:1-A2.3:6. Delvecchio, G., Sylos Labini, M. and Neri, F. (2003), A genetic algorithm method for determining the maximum touch voltage generated by a grounding system, in Rudnicki, M. and Wiak, S. (Eds), Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism, Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht, pp. 85-92. Huang, L., Chen, X. and Yan, H. (1995), Study of unequally spaced grounding grids, IEEE Power Delivery, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 716-22. Mitchell, M. (1996), Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, MIT Press, Boston, MA. Otero, A.F., Cidras, J. and Garrido, C. (1998), Genetic algorithm based method for grounding grid design, Evolutionary Computation Proceedings, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, 4-9 May. Rudnicki, M. (2000), Evolutionary and genetic tools in optimization, Jyvaskyla 10th Summer School, Lecture Notes. Sylos Labini, M., Covitti, A., Delvecchio, G. and Marzano, C. (2003), A study for optimizing the number of subareas in the Maxwells method, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 1159-62. Further reading Amoruso, V., De Nisi, S., Negro, G. and Sylos Labini, M. (1995), A complete computer program for the analysis and design of grounding grids, International Journal of Power and Energy Systems, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 122-7.

732