290

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Lightning Electromagnetic Fields and Their Induced

Voltages on Overhead Lines: The Effect of a
Horizontally Stratied Ground
Keyhan Sheshyekani, Senior Member, IEEE, and Javad Paknahad, Student Member, IEEE

AbstractThe effect of a horizontally stratied two-layer

ground on the aboveground lightning electromagnetic (EM)
elds at close, moderate, and far distances from the lightning
channel base and their induced voltages on overhead transmission
lines is discussed. The analysis is performed by making use of a
full-wave approach based on the nite-element method solution
to Maxwell's equations. It is shown that the radial electric eld
is the only component which is signicantly affected by ground
stratication at any observation point from the lightning channel
base. The peak value of the radial electric eld over a horizontally
stratied two-layer ground, regardless of the conductivities of
the soil layers, takes a value in between the peak values of the
electric elds corresponding to one-layer homogeneous grounds.
For close observation points and when one of the soil layers is
highly conductive (i.e., conductivities well above 0.1 S/m or so),
this component can be computed assuming a homogeneous ground
with the characteristics of the more conductive layer. The vertical
electric eld and the azimuthal magnetic eld are slightly affected
by ground stratication only at distant observation points. The
induced voltages along the line when the upper soil layer is more
conductive and narrow (i.e., 2 m or so), take a value in between
those corresponding to the one-layer grounds. However, when
the upper soil layer is less conductive and narrow, the induced
voltages become identical to those of the homogeneous ground
with the same properties of the lower soil layer. When the upper
soil layer is more conductive and relatively thick (i.e., 10 m or
so), the induced voltages are similar to those associated with the
one layer ground with the same properties of the upper soil layer.
However, when the upper soil layer is less conductive and relatively thick, the induced voltage on the midpoint of the overhead
line is in between those of the homogenous grounds, while at the
line terminations, the induced voltages take a larger value than
those of the homogenous grounds. For the ocean-side overhead
lines located above a horizontally stratied two-layer ground, the
ocean shows the same additional inuence on the induced voltages
as the horizontal two-layer ground.
Index TermsElectromagnetic elds, nite-element method,
horizontally stratied ground, lightning-induced voltages.

Manuscript received January 22, 2014; revised May 01, 2014; accepted June
06, 2014. Date of publication June 24, 2014; date of current version January 21,
2015. Paper no. TPWRD-00082-2014.
The authors are with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 1983963113, Iran (e-mail:
k_sheshyekani@sbu.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2014.2329902

I. INTRODUCTION

CCURATE calculation of lightning electromagnetic

(EM) elds and their interactions with nearby overhead
lines has been the subject of many investigations over the last
few decades [1][10]. This requires appropriate modeling of
the lightning return stroke (e.g., [11]), lightning electromagnetic pulse (LEMP) computation (e.g., [12] and [13]), and
LEMP-to-overhead line coupling calculation (e.g., [14] and
[15]). A major problem with LEMP and LEMP-to-line coupling
calculations is the inclusion of exact behavior of ground, such
as the ground stratication (i.e., multilayer soil structure) and
soil dispersive property (i.e., frequency dependence of soil
electrical parameters). More recently, the effect of dispersive
ground on the lightning electromagnetic (EM) elds (see [16]
and [17]) and their interactions with single and multiconductor
overhead lines ([17] and [18]) have been elaborately discussed.
There has also been a growing interest in the evaluation of
lightning EM elds above and inside horizontally stratied
ground. So far, these attempts have succeeded in predicting the
lightning EM elds above and inside a horizontal two-layer
ground mostly at close distances from the lightning channel
base. The concept of attenuation function and the ground surface impedance developed by Wait [19][22] was adopted by
Cooray and Cummins [23] for the evaluation of lightning EM
elds above a multilayered horizontally stratied ground. However, this method can only predict the vertical electric eld and
fails in providing accurate results at distances not very far from
the lightning channel (i.e., less than 10 km) [24]. Recently, an
efcient algorithm for the evaluation of the exact expressions
for the EM elds radiated by a lightning return stroke channel
above a horizontally stratied ground was presented by Delno
et al. [25]. Based upon this algorithm, a simplied approach
was presented by Shoory et al. [26] for the evaluation of
lightning EM elds above a horizontal two-layer ground. More
recently, Mimouni et al. [27] used the nite-difference time
domain to evaluate the lightning EM elds above and inside
a horizontally stratied two-layer ground. In their study, however, they calculated the EM elds at very close distances from
the lightning channel base. Recently, a time-domain method
for the calculation of the horizontal electric eld on the earth
surface has been presented by Barbosa et al. [28]. The effect
of a horizontally stratied ground on the induced voltages on
overhead lines and induced currents on buried cables has been
partially investigated in [29] and [30]. More recently, this effect

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SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: LIGHTNING EM FIELDS AND THEIR INDUCED VOLTAGES ON OVERHEAD LINES

was discussed in [31] where the authors used a nite-difference

approach to determine the effect of a horizontally stratied
ground on the lightning-induced voltages on overhead lines.
Nevertheless, in [31], the effect of a horizontally stratied
ground on the lightning EM elds at close, moderate, and far
distances from the channel base has not been discussed.
Within this context, this paper focuses on the comprehensive analysis of the effect of a horizontally two-layer ground
on the aboveground lightning-radiated EM elds at close, moderate, and far distances from the lightning channel base and
their induced voltages on overhead lines. To the best of our
knowledge, the former case has not been comprehensively addressed in the literature, in particular, for distant observation
points from the channel base. The lightning-induced voltages on
an ocean-side overhead line where the ground is composed of
two horizontal layers are also studied in this paper. To this aim,
we use a full-wave approach which is based on the nite-element method (FEM) solution of Maxwell's equations.
The organization of the paper is as follows. In Section II,
the nite-element modeling of the problem is briey discussed.
The effect of a horizontally stratied two-layer ground on the
aboveground lightning EM elds is discussed in Section III.
Section IV evaluates the effect of a horizontally stratied
two-layer ground on lightning-induced voltages on a single
conductor overhead line. In Section V, the case of an ocean-side
overhead line located above a horizontally two-layer ground
is analyzed. Finally, general conclusions are provided in
Section VI.
II. FULL-WAVE FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING
For the calculation of lightning EM elds and induced voltages on the overhead lines, we use a full-wave method based
on the FEM as described in [17]. The problem is modeled in
COMSOL Multiphysics through which the time-domain EM
elds in 2-D and 3-D spaces can be calculated. In this paper,
the electromagnetic wave (EMW) solver of the RF module is
used. This method is based on the nite-element solution of the
weak-form representation of the time-domain wave equation of
the magnetic vector potential [32].
The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 1. In this conguration, the stratied ground involves two horizontal layers,
namely, the upper soil layer and the lower soil layer which are,
respectively, characterized by conductivity and relative permittivity of
and
.
In our modeling, the radius of the overhead line wire and
the lightning channel are very small compared to the mesh dimensions. Due to this fact and to avoid a large and inefcient
matrix system in the FEM formulation, the conductor wire is
reasonably modeled as a sequence of mesh edges (as in [17]
and [18]). In COMSOL, Natural Neumann conditions are used
in the soil air and in the soil-layer interfaces, while the natural
Dirichlet condition imposed on the solution domain Is the external boundary condition [17].
In this study, the modied transmission line with exponential decay (MTLE) is adopted for modeling the lightning return
stroke channel with a current height decay of
2000 m, assuming a return stroke speed of
1.3 10 m/s (see [33]

291

Fig. 1. Geometry for the calculation of lightning EM elds above a horizontally

stratied ground.

TABLE I
HEIDLER'S PARAMETERS FOR SUBSEQUENT STROKE ADOPTED FROM [35]

and [34]). According to the MTLE model, the current distribution along the channel is expressed as
(1)
where
is the channel current at height . For the lightning channel base current, typical waveforms associated with
the subsequent return strokes with the adopted parameters of
the Heidler's functions given in Table I [35] are used. Note that
the sum of two Heidler's functions is used to represent the subsequent return stroke current [36].
III. EFFECT OF A HORIZONTALLY STRATIFIED TWO-LAYER
GROUND ON THE LIGHTNING EM FIELDS
In this section, we evaluate the effect of a horizontally stratied two-layer ground on the lightning EM elds, as shown
Fig. 1. To this aim, we present the vertical and radial components of the electric eld (i.e., , ) and the azimuthal component of the magnetic eld (i.e.,
) above the ground surface. Simulations are performed for different conductivity combinations of soil layers
and
0.001 S/m, 0.01 S/m), assuming the same relative
permittivity of
10 for both layers. The depth of the upper
soil layer is
2 m. In each simulation case, the results are
compared with those obtained for one-layer homogeneous soil
with the same property of the upper soil layer and the lower soil
layer. Fig. 2 shows the azimuthal component of the magnetic
eld obtained at different observation points located at horizontal distances of
50, 300, and 1000 m from the channel
base, and at
10 m above the ground level. The vertical
and radial components of the electric eld for the same cases

292

are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. Figs. 24 show the results corresponding to the case of homogeneous soil with the
electrical characteristics of the upper and lower soil layers. Examining these gures, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) As seen from Figs. 2 and 3, the effect of soil stratication on the azimuthal magnetic eld and the vertical
electric eld is negligible for observation points located
not very far from the lightning channel (i.e., a few hundred meters). These results comply with our expectation
since for the considered distances, these eld components are not signicantly affected by the ground nite
conductivity and can reasonably be computed assuming
the ground as a perfect electric conductor [37]. However,
as seen in Fig. 2(c) and Fig. 3(c), the effect of soil stratication starts to be noticeable for
1000 m since it
affects the early time responses of the vertical component of the electric eld and the azimuthal component
of the magnetic eld.
2) Referring to Fig. 4, the effect of soil stratication is noticeable for the radial electric eld at any distance from
the lightning channel base. As can be seen, this effect is
more pronounced for the observation points far from the
channel base. In general, it is seen that the peak value of
the radial electric eld over a two-layer ground, regardless of the conductivities of the soil layers, takes a value
in between those associated with one-layer grounds. It
is also seen that the late time response of the radial electric eld for all two-layer combinations converges to the
radial electric eld of the homogeneous ground characterized by the conductivity of the lower soil layer. To
further evaluate the effect of multilayer ground on the
radial component of the electric eld, we repeated the
simulations for the soil electrical characteristics used in
[27] for different observation points located at 50, 300,
and 1000 m from the channel base (Fig. 5). For this
case, the conductivity combinations for soil layers are
(0.1 S/m,0.002 S/m) and
0.002
S/m,0.1 S/m). We assume relative permittivities of
80 and
5 for the soils with conductivities of
0.1 S/m and
0.002 S/m, respectively. A comparison between Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 4(a) reveals the fact
already acknowledged in [27] that for those two-layer
grounds in which one of the soil layers is highly conductive (i.e.,
0.1 S/m or so) and when the thickness of the upper layer is below 10 m, the radial electric
eld follows the same behavior as of the homogeneous
ground with the same properties of the more conductive layer. However, this might not be generally valid
for two-layer grounds with different conductivity combinations as seen in Fig. 4(a), in particular, at moderate
and far distances from the channel base, as shown in
Fig. 5(b) and (c).
In Fig. 6, we compare the horizontal electric elds over a twolayer stratied ground (with the same soil electrical properties
used for Fig. 5) with those obtained by the nite-difference time
domain (FDTD) in [27]. The depth of the rst soil layer is

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 2. Azimuthal component of the magnetic eld

at 10 m above a
50 m, (b)
300 m, and (c)
1000
horizontal two-layer ground. (a)
m. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the rst layer
2 m.

at 10 m above a horizontal
Fig. 3. Vertical component of the electric eld
50 m, (b)
300 m, (c)
1000 m. Return stroke
two-layer ground. (a)
2 m.
current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the rst layer

5 m. It is clearly seen from Fig. 6 that our results are in good

agreement with the FDTD counterparts.

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: LIGHTNING EM FIELDS AND THEIR INDUCED VOLTAGES ON OVERHEAD LINES

293

Fig. 6. Comparison between the FEM and the FDTD for the calculation of the
at 10 m above a horizontal two-layer
radial component of the electric eld
5 m).
ground

Fig. 4. Radial component of the electric eld

at 10 m above a horizontal
50 m, (b)
300 m, and (c)
1000 m. Return
two-layer ground. (a)
2 m.
stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the rst layer

Fig. 5. Radial component of the electric eld

at 10 m above a horizontal
2 m). (a)
50 m, (b)
300 m, and (c)
1000 m.
two-layer ground
Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Soil electrical parameters
are different from previous cases and adapted from [27].

IV. EFFECT OF A HORIZONTALLY STRATIFIED TWO-LAYER

GROUND ON INDUCED VOLTAGES ON OVERHEAD LINES
In order to evaluate the effect of a horizontally stratied
ground on lightning-induced voltages on overhead lines, we
consider a case of lightning striking the ground in the vicinity of

Fig. 7. Single conductor overhead line conguration, observation points, and

stroke locations.

a single conductor overhead line. The geometry of the problem

is shown in Fig. 7. The line is 1 km long located at a height
of
10 m above the ground surface. Two stroke locations
are considered; the rst stroke location is SL#1 that is 50 m far
from the line and equidistant from the line terminations while
the second stroke location is SL#2 that is alongside the line,
50 m away from its left termination. Simulations are done for
different conductivity combinations of soil layers;
0.01 S/m,0.001 S/m) and
0.001 S/m,0.01 S/m)
assuming the same relative permittivity of
10 for both
soil layers.
In each simulation case, the results are compared with those
obtained for homogeneous soils characterized by the electrical
properties of the upper and lower soil layers. The simulations are
carried out considering different thicknesses for the upper soil
layer of
2, 10, and 50 m. As discussed in [17], the induced
voltages are obtained by integrating the vertical component of
the electric eld along a straight vertical path starting from the
conductor surface [17], [18]. The lower integration point is either a point on the ground surface underneath the wire or a point
inside the ground at which the electric eld vanishes. It is obvious that for an ideal ground, the integration path is reasonably
selected between the line and the ground surface since the electric eld does not penetrate into the ground. In lossy ground, due
to the nite ground conductivity, a complete transverse magnetic propagation is not satised. Hence, the total electric eld
is not conservative, and the integral of the electric eld between
any two points is path dependent [17]. Owing to this fact, in
our simulations, the gradient of the scalar potential is obtained
along a unique path that vertically continues from the conductor
surface to the ground surface.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 8. Comparison between the FEM and the LIOV for the calculation of the
lightning-induced voltages on the matched overhead line shown in Fig. 7 at the
related to stroke location SL#1. The soil is characterized by
line midpoint
0.001 S/m and
10.

To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed model, we rst compare the induced voltages obtained in this paper for two integration paths with the result calculated by the LIOV code [38].
Results are obtained for the overhead line shown in Fig. 7 at the
line midpoint
related to stroke location SL#1 for a typical
subsequent return stroke whose parameters are listed in Table I,
when the line is matched at both ends and the soil is characterized by
0.001 S/m and
10. From Fig. 8, it is seen
that our results are in good agreement with the result generated
by the LIOV code. The slight difference between our results and
that of LIOV is mainly due to different approaches employed by
the FEM and the LIOV code for the inclusion of the soil nite
conductivity in the LEMP calculations as well as the per-unit parameter determination of the overhead line with a nite length
[38].
Fig. 9 shows the induced voltages along the overhead line at
the line midpoint (i.e.,
) due to a typical subsequent return
stroke current. As shown in Fig. 9(a), when the thickness of the
upper soil layer is 2 m and the upper soil layer is more conductive, the induced voltages take a value in between those corresponding to one-layer grounds. However, when the upper soil
layer is less conductive, the induced voltage follows the same
behavior as that of the homogeneous ground case with the same
properties of the lower soil layer. When the thickness of the
upper soil layer is
10 m, as can be seen from Fig. 9(b), when
the upper soil layer is more conductive, the induced voltage is
equal to that of the homogeneous soil characterized by the upper
soil-layer conductivity. However, when the upper soil layer is
less conductive, the induced voltage takes a value in between
those voltages obtained for homogeneous grounds. As can be
seen from Fig. 9(c), when the thickness of the upper layer is 50
m or so, the effect of soil stratication on early-time response of
the induced voltages is negligible, while the late-time response
is still affected.
To further evaluate the effect of a horizontally stratied
ground, we obtain the induced voltages at the line termination
for different thicknesses of the upper soil layer for the
same stroke location, that is, SL#1 (Fig. 10). It can be seen
from Fig. 10(a) that for narrow upper soil layers (i.e.,
2
m or so), when the lower soil layer is more conductive, the
induced voltage follows the same behavior as that of the case
of homogeneous soil with the properties of the lower soil layer.
Otherwise, the induced voltage takes a value in between the
induced voltages associated with one-layer grounds, while the

Fig. 9. Induced voltages on the midpoint of the matched overhead line shown
. (a)
2 m, (b)
10 m, and (c)
50 m. Stroke location
in Fig. 7,
SL#1. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Integration path from
0 to
10 m.

wave propagation speed seems to be affected by soil stratication. As the thickness of the upper soil layer is increased to
10 m, it is interestingly seen that the maximum induced
voltage occurs for the horizontally stratied soil where the
upper soil layer is less conductive than the lower soil layer [see
Fig. 10(b)]. In this soil structure, when the lower soil layer
is less conductive, the induced voltages associated with the
two-layer ground are identical to the case of homogeneous
soil with the same property of the upper soil layer. Similar
to the previous case, when the thickness of the upper soil
layer is increased to 50 m or so, the stratication effect on the
early-time response of the induced voltages is negligible, while
the late-time response is still affected [Fig. 10(c)].
The aforementioned ndings need further discussion. As discussed earlier in the preceding section, the effect of a two-layer
stratied ground on the vertical electric eld in free space and
in the absence of an overhead line is negligible for any observation point far from the channel (see Fig. 3). As known, in
LEMP-to-line coupling models (e.g., [14] and [15]), the induced
voltages on overhead lines that are located in the vicinity of the
lightning channel need the derivation and solving of the coupling equations. Although the LEMP-to-line coupling equations
are well recognized for their homogenous soil structure [15], the
case of multilayer ground is not easily amenable to these coupling models. In the proposed approach, as the induced voltage
is obtained by integrating the total vertical electric eld, the effect of multilayer ground on the induced voltage should be justied by the similar effect on the total vertical electric eld. It is
noted that by the total vertical electric eld we mean the sum of
the exciting electric eld generated by the lightning channel in
the absence of the overhead wire and the scattered electric eld,

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: LIGHTNING EM FIELDS AND THEIR INDUCED VOLTAGES ON OVERHEAD LINES

295

Fig. 12. Induced voltages shown in Figs. 9(a) and 10(a) when the integration
600 m to
10 m. (a)
. (b)
path is selected as a vertical path from
. The depth of the upper soil layer is
2 m.

Fig. 10. Induced voltages on the endpoint of the matched overhead line shown
. (a)
2 m, (b)
10 m, (c)
50 m. Stroke location SL#1.
in Fig. 7,
0 to
Return stroke typical of subsequent strokes. Integration path from
10 m.

Fig. 11. Total vertical component of the electric eld at two points. (a)
. (b)
. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. The depth of the upper
10 m.
soil layer is

that is, the eld generated by the induced currents and charges
along the line. To this aim, results associated with the total vertical component of the electric eld at
and
both located
5 m above the ground right beneath the line when the thickness
of the upper soil layer is
10 m are shown in Fig. 11. As
seen from this gure, unlike the exciting vertical electric eld,
the total vertical component of the electric eld is inuenced
by the effect of a horizontally stratied ground which, in turn,
justies the effect of soil stratication on the induced voltages
as illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10. It should be noted that in these
simulations, the effect of frequency dependence of soil electrical
parameters has not been taken into account [39], [40].
As discussed earlier, the induced voltages are calculated by
integrating the total vertical electric eld along a vertical path

that continues from the conductor surface to the lower integration point either at the ground surface or inside the ground. To
study the effect of selecting each integration path, Fig. 12 shows
the lightning-induced voltages shown in Fig. 9(a) and Fig. 10(a),
but they are calculated by selecting the lower integration point at
600 m below the ground surface (at which the electric eld vanishes as reported in [17]). A comparison between results shown
in Fig. 12 and those of Fig. 9(a) and Fig. 10(a) reveals that the
calculated voltages are generally the same. Thus, selecting the
integration path between the conductor surface and the ground
surface is a reasonable choice.
For the next study, we consider the same case shown in
Fig. 7 where the lightning strikes the ground at SL#2 which is
referred to as an end stroke. The line is matched at the far
end and open-circuited at its close end. The induced voltages
along the line at
(close end) and
(midpoint) are shown
in Figs. 13 and 14, respectively. Fig. 15 reports the induced
voltages at
(far end) considering a thickness of
10
m for the upper soil layer. These results further support the
previous ndings regarding the effect of soil stratication on
the induced voltages. Moreover, similar to the middle stroke,
for the case of the end stroke, the effect of soil stratication
on the induced voltages on the line midpoint is still noticeable
when the thickness of the upper soil layer is 50 m.
V. EFFECT OF A MIXED HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL
PROPAGATION PATH ON THE INDUCED VOLTAGES
In the nal study, the effect of mixed horizontal and vertical
stratied soil on the lightning-induced voltages is investigated.
The practical example for this case could be an ocean-side overhead line as shown in Fig. 16. The line has a length of
1000 m, matched at both ends, and its height above the ground
is
10 m. The lightning channel strikes on the land surface,
and the distance between the overhead line and the ocean is
5 m. The stroke location is 50 m away from the line and
equidistant from the line terminations. The conductivity combinations for soil layers are
(0.01 S/m, 0.001 S/m) and
0.001 S/m, 0.01 S/m) assuming the same relative
permittivity of
10 for both layers. The depth of the upper

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 15. Induced voltages on the far end of the overhead line shown in Fig. 7,
for
10 m. Stroke location SL#2. Return stroke current typical of sub0 to
10 m. The line is matched
sequent strokes. Integration path from
at the far end and open-circuited at the close end.

Fig. 13. Induced voltages on the close end of the overhead line shown in Fig. 7,
. (a)
2 m, (b)
10 m, (c)
50 m. Stroke location SL#2. Return
0 to
stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Integration path from
10 m. The line is matched at the far end and open circuited at the close end.

Fig. 16. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced voltage on an

ocean-side overhead line located above a horizontal two-layer stratied ground.

Fig. 17. Induced voltages on the ocean-side overhead line shown in Fig. 16 at
and (b)
. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. The
(a)
10 m. The distance
line is matched and the depth of the upper soil layer is
5 m.
between the overhead line and the ocean is

Fig. 14. Induced voltages on the midpoint of the overhead line shown in Fig. 7,
. (a)
2 m, (b)
10 m, (c)
50 m. Stroke location SL#2. Return
0 to
stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Integration path from
10 m. The line is matched at the far end and open circuited at the close end.

soil layer is
10 m. The ocean is characterized by a conductivity of
4 S/m and a relative permittivity of
30.
The lightning-induced voltages on the midpoint and end point
of the overhead line (i.e.,
and
), due to the typical subsequent return stroke, are shown in Fig. 17. This gure also
shows the results obtained for the case of homogeneous medium

characterized by the electrical properties of each soil layer. It is

seen from Fig. 17 that in the presence of the ocean, the induced
voltages at the line midpoint become lower than those obtained
for the one-layer grounds [Fig. 17(a)], while the induced voltages at the line-end point become higher than those obtained
for the one-layer grounds [Fig. 17(b)]. A comparison between
Figs. 9(b), 10(b), and 17 reveals the fact that the ocean has a
similar effect as the horizontal two-layer ground on the induced
voltages.
In fact, compared to the horizontally stratied ground, the induced voltages on the ocean-side overhead line are further affected by the considered mixed horizontal and vertical propa-

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: LIGHTNING EM FIELDS AND THEIR INDUCED VOLTAGES ON OVERHEAD LINES

TABLE II
PEAK VALUE OF THE INDUCED VOLTAGE ON THE OVERHEAD LINE SHOWN IN
Fig. 7 FOR THE CASE OF MIDDLE STROKE (STROKE LOCATION SL#1)

TABLE III
PEAK VALUE OF THE INDUCED VOLTAGE ON THE OVERHEAD LINE SHOWN IN
Fig. 7 FOR THE CASE OF END STROKE (STROKE LOCATION SL#2)

gation path. A summary of the presented results regarding the

effect of stratied soil on the peak value of induced voltages is
listed in Tables II and III.
It is worth noting that since we use a full-wave solution to
Maxwell's equations, any coupling mechanism is inherently
taken into account and the LEMP and LEMP-to-line coupling
equations are not decoupled. In fact, the total components of
the EM elds (i.e., exciting and scattered elds) as well as the
induced voltages are directly calculated [18]. The governing
equations and numerical considerations for the simulation cases
in COMSOL Multiphysics are discussed in [17] and [41].
VI. CONCLUSION
We used a full-wave nite-element-based solution of
Maxwell's equations for the evaluation of the effect of a horizontally stratied two-layer ground on the aforementioned
ground lightning EM elds and their induced voltage on
overhead lines. It was shown that the radial EM eld is the
only component which is signicantly affected by the ground
stratication at any observation point far from the lightning
channel base. It was found that the peak value of the radial
electric eld over a horizontally stratied two-layer ground,
regardless of the conductivities of the soil layers, takes a value
in between the peak values of the electric elds corresponding
to the one-layer homogeneous grounds. For close observation
points and when the upper soil layer is highly conductive
(i.e., conductivities that are well above 0.1 S/m or so), this
component can be computed, assuming a homogeneous ground
with the characteristics of the more conductive soil layer. It
was also shown that the vertical electric eld and the azimuthal
magnetic eld are slightly affected by ground stratication only
at distant observation points.
For induced voltages, the following conclusions were drawn:
1) When the upper soil layer is more conductive and
narrow (i.e., 2 m or so), the induced voltages take a
value in between that of one-layer grounds. However,
when the upper soil layer is less conductive and narrow,
the induced voltages are similar to those associated with

297

the homogeneous ground characterized by the same

properties of the lower soil layer.
2) When the upper soil layer is more conductive and relatively thick (i.e., 10 m or so), the induced voltages are
identical to those associated with the one-layer ground
with the same properties of the upper soil layer. However, when the upper soil layer is less conductive and relatively thick, the induced voltages on the midpoint of the
overhead line are in between that of one-layer grounds.
3) When the upper soil layer is less conductive and relatively thick, the voltages induced on the line terminations are larger than those of one-layer grounds.
4) When the thickness of the upper soil layer is above 50
m or so, one can reasonably disregard the effect of the
horizontal two-layer ground.
For the ocean-side overhead lines located above a horizontal
stratied two-layer ground, the ocean shows the same inuence
as that of the stratied ground on the induced voltages.
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Keyhan Sheshyekani (M'10SM'13) received

the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, in 2001, and the
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran
Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2003 and 2008,
respectively.
He was with Ecole Polytechnique, Federale
de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in
2007 as a Visiting Scientist and later as a Research
Assistant. He was an Invited Professor at the EPFL
in 2014. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
with Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. His research interests include power
system modeling and simulation, smart grid, microgrids, and electromagnetic
compatibility.

Javad Paknahad (S'14) was born in Iran in 1989.

He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Tafresh campus, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2011
and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, in 2013.
Currently, he is a Research Assistant at the Power
System Laboratory, Shahid Beheshti University. His
research interests include power system modeling
and simulations, electromagnetic compatibility,
and the application of electromagnetics in power
systems.