High Frequency and Transient Coupling to

Pasive Conductors Near Grounding Systems

in Layered Soil

Vesna Arnautovski-Toseva
(1)
, Leonid Grcev
(1)
, Spase Petkoski
(1)
and Khalil El Khamlichi Drissi
(2)

(1)
Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies
Skopje, Macedonia, Email: (atvesna,lgrcev}@feit.ukim.edu.mk
(2)
University Blaise Pascal, LASMEA
Aubire, France, Email: drissi@ lasmea.univ-bpclermont.fr

AbstractThis paper presents the ongoing research results
of the high frequency and transient grounding system
analysis in two-layer soil structure. On the basis of rigorous
electromagnetic field theory, which involves Sommerfelds
integrals, the mathematical model is formulated by the
mixed potential integral equation (MPIE). Detailed analysis
of a high frequency performance of a typical horizontal
grounding conductor placed in the upper or in the bottom
layer is given. It is shown that because of the presence of
two distinct layers the current distribution and the
impedance to ground are highly affected by the parameters
of both soil layers. Also, the current distribution in near-by
passive horizontal conductor is analyzed. At the end of the
paper some observations about the effects of two-layer soil
structure at high frequencies are given.
Keywords-grounding; electromagnetic model;
I. INTRODUCTION
The practical studies and experimental investigations
indicate that uniform soil parameters throughout the
entire area and to considerable depth of interest are
seldom found. Considering the realistic soil environment,
it is shown that non-homogenous soil could be
adequately represented by an equivalent multi-layer soil
structure, by the presence of several horizontal layers. In
practice it is assumed that the two-layer model of soil
stratification is reasonably valid for non-uniform soil
representation. The survey of the published work in this
area implies that traditional analysis of grounding
systems in two-layer soil is performed using static and
quasi-static theory concepts of images [1], and modified
images [2]. The electromagnetic model, which is
developed on the rigorous electromagnetic approach [3],
considers homogenous soil only. However, a comparison
study of exact and quasi-static model for uniform soil,
has suggested that quasi-static model is not valid at high
frequencies (HF) [4]. Our research in this field resulted in
development of a new electromagnetic model for HF
analysis of grounding systems placed within the upper
layer of two-layer soil [7]. The validation of this model is
achieved by comparison with the quasi-static model of
images [8], and the electromagnetic model developed
previously for uniform soil [9].
In this paper, we will present more general analysis of
high frequency behavior of simple horizontal grounding
conductor placed within two-layer soil, where the
position of the conductor is assumed to be within the
upper or within the bottom layer. Also, of interested in
this analysis is the frequency domain behavior of a near-
by horizontal passive conductor placed parallel to the
grounding conductor in the same layer. The main
objective of this work is to give some general observation
of the high frequency behavior of grounding systems
within two-layer soil in general, as well as to investigate
the behavior of near-by passive conductor with respect to
frequency. The mathematical model will be presented in
section 2. By comparing the results obtained by using the
two-layer soil model and the homogeneous soil model, in
section 3, we will give some observations about the
adequacy of the application of the two-layer soil model in
practical lightning studies
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
A. Model of the Grounding Conductor and the Soil
The electromagnetic model developed for high
frequency and transient analysis of grounding systems is
based on rigorous formulations derived from the full set
of the Maxwells equations, on the theoretical
background of antenna analysis [5]. It is based on the
integral equation for the electric field due to current and
charges along grounding wires in terms of the vector and
scalar potentials, so called: mixed potential integral
equation. The exact Greens functions involve
Sommerfeld type integrals for the layered media and their
direct numerical integration. For the excitation of the
grounding conductor by injection of current in one of its
end, this solution gives current distribution along the
grounding conductor, impedance to ground, electric field
and potentials in arbitrary points. The detailed description
978-1-4244-2737-6/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
of the model which is developed for uniform soil is given
in [3]. Later, this model is extended for high frequency
analysis of grounding systems within the upper layer of
two-layer soil [7]. For the purpose of this paper, the brief
description of the electromagnetic model in general is
given within this section.
We consider a single x-directed horizontal electrode
of length L placed at depth H within the upper or within
the bottom layer of a two-layer soil. The passive wire
may be placed in the same or in opposite layer. Following
the thin-wire approximation, the physical model of an
electrode is based on the fictitious wire segmentation into
straight tubular segments. The harmonic current
excitation is assumed, which is simulated by an ideal
time-harmonic current generator with one terminal
connected to the grounding system and the other terminal
to infinity, which yields frequency-domain response of
the system.
To solve current distribution the method of moments
is applied using Galerkin formulation with triangular
basis and test functions [8]. The wires are segmented in
fictitious segments and the current distribution is
approximated by overlapped triangular expansion
functions (triangular dipoles). Excitation is
approximated by an additional triangular monopole.
Following matrix equation yields current distribution:
] [ ] ][ [
S S
I Z I Z = (1)
Here, the column matrix [I] represents the unknown
current samples, [Z] is generalized impedance matrix
related to mutual impedances between triangular dipoles,
[-Z
S
I
S
] is excitation matrix where I
S
is current injected at a
point in the grounding conductors and Z
S
is column
matrix related to mutual impedances between each of the
triangle dipoles and the injection triangle monopole. [Z]
matrix is symmetrical and only half of the elements have
to be evaluated. For the case of one linear wire [Z] is
Toeplitz matrix and only one row have to be computed.
0 AIR
Ig
L
1 UPPER
LAYER
2 BOTTOM
LAYER
z
y
x
H
Grounding conductor

Figure 1. General view of the end-driven single grounding electrode
and a near-by passive condutor in the same layer.
The soil and the air are modeled as linear medium
characterized by corresponding permittivity, permeability
and conductivity. Figure 1 shows a single grounding
conductor in two-layer soil and near-by passive
conductor in the same or in the opposite later. It is
assumed that the two-layer soil model consists of an
upper layer of finite height d1 and characterized by
relative permittivity r1, permeability 0 and resistivity
1; and a bottom layer which is characterized by relative
permittivity r2, permeability 0 and resistivity 2. Air is
characterized by permittivity 0 and permeability 0.
B. Calculation of the impedance matrix
To determine the impedance matrix [Z], each element
of the matrix is determined as self or mutual impedance
zmn between two wire segments (m-observation) and (n-
source) carrying current I
n
:
mn n m
mn
n n
u
z
I I

= =
E l
(2)
Here, E
n
is the tangential electric field at the surface
of the observation segment l
m
due to current I
n
along the
source segment.
( )
n n
j
n
= + E A (3)
Here, the vector and scalar potentials are represented
by their integral forms, involving current density I
n
and
charge density q
n
in the source segment of length l
n
:

=
n
l
n n A n
d I l G A ,

=
n
l
n n n
dl q G

1
n
n
n
dI
q
j dl

= (4)
Here,
A
G is the dyadic Green's function for the
magnetic vector potential, and G

is the scalar potential

Green's function due to elementary horizontal electric
dipole (HED) in layered medium. They are first obtained
in spectral domain and take into account the reflection
from the boundaries. The spectral domain Greens
functions of vector potential and scalar potential are
related to the longitudinal components of the spectral
domain fields, which are proportional to the spectral
domain transmission coefficients [6]:
0
2
xx
A
z
G
j k

TE
T (6)
2
2
1 1
2
TM
TE TE z
q
r z z
k T
G T T
j k jk z k

= +

(7)
Passive conductor
Here, T
TE
and T
TM
are plane wave transmission
coefficients from the plane of the source to the plane of
the observation; kz is vertical wave number for the layer
of the source and
2
0 0
2
0
2 2
) ( k j k k k
r r z

= = + .
The spatial domain Green's functions are obtained by
numerical solving the Sommerfeld-type integrals

=
0
0 , ,
) ( ) (
~
2
1

dk k k J k G G
q A q A
. (8)
C. Calculation of the impedance to ground
Once the currents in segments of the grounding
conductors are computed, the electric field can be
computed by summing their contributions. The voltage
between the feed point and a remote ground V
G
, might be
computed by integrating the electric field vector along a
path to infinity perpendicularly to the electrode and
starting from the surface of the conductor. However, this
is equivalent to the scalar potential at the feed point.
Therefore, impedance to ground Z
G
is:
] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [
1
1
Z Z Z Z I
I I
V
Z
S
S S
G
G
= = =

. (9)
Here [Z'] is a row matrix with scalar potentials at the
excitation segment due to currents in all segments.
III. NUMERICAL RESULTS
A. Analysis of a single grounding conductor
In this section some of the results that show the high
frequency behavior of a single horizontal grounding
conductor within two layer soil are presented.
The studied grounding conductor is typical end-
driven linear horizontal wire: short (10m) and long (50m)
with radius of 0.005m placed at depth H=-0.75m within
the upper or the bottom layer. The conductor is energized
by a time-harmonic current generator with amplitude of
1A in frequency range from 1kHz to 10MHz. Since there
is huge number of combination of parameters of the two-
layer soil model we are restricting our analysis to the
cases 1 and 2 given in the table 1.

Figure 2. Magnitude and phase of a longitudinal current along 10m
short grounding conductor within two-layer soil at frequencies
0.1MHz, 1MHz and 10MHz.

TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF BOTH LAYERS


Upper layer
depth d
1

(m)
Upper layer

1
(m)
Bottom
layer

2
(m)
Case 1
Conductor in
the upper
layer

1.0

100
a) 1000

b) 10
Case 2
Conductor in
the bottom
layer

0.5
a) 1000

b) 10

100

The layer containing the grounding conductor (upper
or bottom) is assumed by resistivity fixed to 100m. It is
assumed that the relative permittivity of both layers is 10.
The resistivity of the neighbor layer is assumed by: a)
1000m and b) 10m.
The depth of the upper layer is considered as: Case 1)
1.0m - when the grounding conductor is placed within the
upper layer and Case 2) 0.5m - when the grounding
conductor is placed within the bottom layer. In order to
compare the results obtained for homogeneous soil and
two-layer soil, it is assumed that homogeneous soil model
is characterized by resistivity of 100m.
Figure 2 shows the magnitude and phase of the
current distribution along the short 10m horizontal
conductor. The studied frequencies are: 0.1MHz (solid),
1MHz (dash) and 10MHz (dot).

Figure 3. Magnitude and phase of a longitudinal current along 50m
long grounding conductor within two-layer soil at frequencies 0.1MHz,
1MHz and 10MHz.
The results are obtained for two-layer soil with
parameters given in table I: Case 1 (blue-green), and for
Case 2 (red-magenta). For comparison, the results
obtained for homogeneous soil are represented in grey.
It is obvious that in case of a short horizontal
conductor the influence up to 0.1MHz the current
distribution profiles correspond to the typical quasi-static
behavior. The current discharged into the ground is
almost constant except at the conductor extremities,
which is in agreement with [1]. As the frequency
increases, it is observed that the longitudinal current
decreases very fast. For 1MHz, the wavelength in the
layer containing the conductor is about 22m that is
comparably to the length of the conductor. At this
frequency the current distribution profiles show
significant differences. For 10MHz, the current
distribution profiles become closer and almost overlap,
which lead to the conclusion that at very high frequencies
the short horizontal conductor placed within two-layer
soil is practically behaves like placed in homogeneous
soil.
In comparison with the previous results, the
performance of a long 50m conductor placed within two-
layer soil is much more function of the frequency, and is
also significantly influenced by the properties of the two-
layer soil model. Figure 3 shows magnitude and phase of
the current distribution along the 50m long horizontal
conductor at frequencies: 0.01MHz (solid), 0.1MHz
(dash) and 1.0MHz (dot). The results show that up to
0.01MHz the longitudinal current distribution profiles
correspond to the typical quasi-static profiles, which
correspond to [1]. Significant differences are observed
for frequencies in range of 0.1MHz (the wavelength in
the layer containing the conductor is 70m that is close to
the length of the conductor). As the frequency increases
up to 1MHz, it is observed that a large partition of the
injected current is discharged through the small section of
about 25% of the conductor length, especially in case
when next layer is slightly resistive.
B. Analysis of the passive near-by parallel conductor
In this section we present some of the results that
show the longitudinal current along passive near-by
conductor placed parallel to 10m (short) grounding
conductor in the same layer. The length of the passive
conductor is assumed to be: 10m and 20m. The passive
conductor is positioned at the same depth (-0.75m) at
0.5m parallel to the grounding conductor. Figures 4 and 5
show the current along 10m and 20m passive parallel
conductor at frequencies: 0.01MHz (solid), 0.1MHz
(dash) and 1MHz (dot).
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the high frequency
electromagnetic analysis of horizontal grounding
conductor within two-layer soil. The results lead to the
following conclusions:

Figure 4. Longitudinal current along 10m passive near-by conductor
parallel to 10m grounding conductor within two-layer soil at 0.01MHz,
0.1MHz and 1MHz.


Figure 5. Longitudinal current along 20m passive near-by conductor
parallel to 10m grounding conductor within two-layer soil at 0.01MHz,
0.1MHz and 1MHz.

The current distribution along horizontal
grounding conductor within two-layer soil is
strongly affected by the parameters of both layers
especially for frequencies when the wavelength
is close to the length of the conductor. For longer
conductors, these effects are observed in the
lower frequency range from few kHz up to
1MHz. At very high frequencies over 1MHz, the
effects of the two-layer soil model is approaching
that of a homogeneous soil model.
The two-layer soil parameters have strong
influence on the current distribution along
passive parallel conductor in the lower frequency
range, especially when the neighbor layer is
much more resistive.

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