2009 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena

Grounding Resistance Calculation Using FEM and

Reduced Scale Model
Thinh Pham Hong, Quan Do Van and Thang Vo Viet
Department of Power Systems-Hanoi University of Technology (HUT)
1- Dai Co Viet Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
calculation was first performed in simple configuration of
grounding electrode. Reduced scale model in simulation was
used for grounding grid of 16 square mesh, with and without
ground rods. The results could be effectively used for
grounding grid design.

Abstract- The grounding grid of a substation is one of the most

important parts in an electrical system from the point of view of
the safety of the people and equipment. Depending on the nature
of the phenomena involved in the system is fault or lightning
current, the behavior of grounding system is considered under
steady state or transient point of view. For safety purpose of
grounding grid, the ground resistance is more likely calculated by
analytical or numerical method by using potential distribution
calculation along soil structure. In comparison with the analytical
method, Finite Element Method (FEM) method in calculation of
grounding resistance is more flexible in analyzing asymmetrical
geometry of the grid, as well as in case of anisotropy of soil
resistivity. However, with the increase in size and complexity of
substation grid, the FEM method could not be applied due to the
increase of divided elements. This paper presents a reduced scale
model for grounding resistance calculation using FEM method.
The results giving the effect of electrode configuration on
potential profile and grounding resistance are also presented.

I.

II. MODEL AND SIMULATION

The simulation of the grounding grid allows us to calculate

the grounding resistance and the potential profile above the
ground grid regardless of their shape and the geometry of the
ground electrode. Like any Finite Element Method (FEM)
based calculation, ANSYS program calculates the grounding
resistance by using one of the two methods [1]:
A. Current Flow Analysis
For an arbitrary geometry, the resistance between two
electrodes can be calculated from the voltage V and the
dissipated power P in the ground:

INTRODUCTION

In which the dissipated power P is determined by:

The grounding system of a substation is one of the most

important parts in a power system. The purpose of the
grounding system is to provide a low impedance electrical
contact between the neutral of an electrical system and earth
[1]. Depending on the nature of the phenomena involved in the
system is fault or lightning current, the behavior of grounding
system is considered under steady state or transient point of
view. For the purpose of safety, the performance of a
grounding system is evaluated by some parameters such as
ground resistance, touch voltage, step voltage, mesh voltage
[2].
The calculation method of grounding system using
analytical approaches [2, 3] in which the soil is considered as
uniform medium and the electrodes are considered as
symmetric. When the uniform soil approximation is no longer
valid and the electrodes contain irregularities, such methods
may result in unsafe or overdesigned grounding system [4].
Recently, Finite Element Method (FEM) has been used as an
excellent numerical method to calculate the grounding system
[5-7]. The main disadvantage of this method is the limited
capability of the computer in case of too large dimension of
grounding grid, specifically with the large ratio between grid
dimension and grounding electrode size. In experimental
works, the grounding system is always measured and validated
by reducing in size by the same scale factor of the physical
dimension of the grid [8-11]. But few investigations have
focused on the reduced scale model in simulation.
This work presents the FEM simulation of grounding grid
using reduced scale model in ANSYS program. The

978-1-4244-4559-2/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

(1)
(2)

Where:
J: current density
V: electrical conductivity
E: electric field

B. Electrostatic Analysis
Another method used to calculate the grounding resistance
in FEM is to know the stored energy by the electric field in the
ground:

(3)

Where the stored energy by the electric field is given by:

(4)

The following simplifying hypotheses will be also taken into

account when calculating the grounding system:
- The soil is isotropic and uniform in each layer
- The non-linearity does not occur in the soil
- The grid behavior at power frequency is considered
in stationary regime.
- In reduced scale model, all physical dimensions of a
grounding grid are reduced by the same factor
including the conductor diameter and the buried
depth. Thus, the current injected in grounding system
is unaltered and remained 1kA in any model.
- The grounding grid is buried in a semi-infinite earth,
and in order to not distort the field inside the

278

calculated medium [11] we considered a surrounding

earth of the grid having a diameter equal to at least
three times the width of the grid.

250
200

SIMULATION RESULTS

R,

III.

300

A. Ground resistance in uniform soils.

Ground resistance was first calculated in uniform soil of
400:.m in resistivity. Fig. 1 shows the potential distribution
in the soil of a horizontal rod of 2m in length. Due to
symmetry of the electrode configuration, one-fourth of the
vertical rod was necessary to simulate in 3D model. The
simulation results enabled us to observe the step voltage,
which was calculated the voltage difference between 1m apart,
along and perpendicular to the rod (Fig. 2). The step voltage
along the electrode shows a small deviation from that is
perpendicular to the electrode, and a dangerous point in step
voltage exists at 1m far from the electrode end along the
electrode. This behavior suggests that the maximum step
voltage for a horizontal rod should be calculated at a certain
point from the electrode ends. The effect of electrode length
was also examined and shown in fig. 6

150
100
50
0

10

Electrode length, m

12

14

Fig 3. Grounding resistance of horizontal rod versus the length

In order to increase the performance of the grounding

system, 3 vertical rods have been added to the horizontal
configuration to form a mixed configuration. The voltage
profile on the soil surface was shown in fig. 3. It was obvious
that maximum step voltage has the same behavior than the
previous case, but the maximum value has been reduced in
half (from |2400V to |1000V). The ground resistance has
been substantially decreased when using mixed configuration.
It was observed that 50: was the limited value in horizontal
configuration. However, the combination of vertical and
horizontal rods could reduce the grounding resistance to 8:
(fig. 9). The saturation at 4m of distance between two vertical
rods was correlated with the analytical results [1] in which the
combination may obtain the best efficiency if the distance
between two vertical rods should not exceed twice of their
length.

Fig. 1. Potential distribution in the soil for 1 horizontal rod of 0.020.02m in

size
30000
25000

20000

Perpendicular to
the rod

15000

Along the rod

Fig 4. One-fourth of mixed configuration with 3 vertical rod of 2m and 1
horizontal rod of 4m

10000
5000

12000

0
0

10
15
20
25
Distance from the electrode end, m

10000

30

8000

Fig 2. Step voltage distribution on the soil surface, along and perpendicular to
the horizontal rod

Perpendicular to the
horizontal rod

6000

Along the horizontal rod

4000
2000
0
0

10

15

20

25

30

Distance from the electrode end, m

Fig 5. Step voltage distribution on the soil surface, along and perpendicular to
the horizontal rod

279

18

9000

16

8000

14

7000

12

6000

R, :10

V 5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

20mx20m
10mx10m
4mx4m

0
0

4
6
Distance between two vertical rods, m

20

30

40

50

X(m)

Fig 6. Ground resistance versus vertical rod spacing in mixed configuration

Fig. 8. X-axis potential profile for 16 mesh grid without ground rod

B. Reduced scale model

As the principle of the FEM is dividing the studied volume
into elements, a grounding system of a large substation,
especially in presence of vertical rods, may lead to too many
divided elements so that the computer could not solve it. This
could be one of reasons why previous works always used the
FEM to determine grounding resistance of very simple ground
electrode [7], of small grids with ground rods (the maximum
of grid dimension was 12m8m) [5], or of large grids (the
maximum of grid dimension was 100m80m) but without
ground rods [6]. In this section, the behavior of grounding
grids of 16 meshes without and with 16 ground rods installed
in the boundary junction was simulated (fig. 7). A variety of
grids with outside dimensions 20m20m, 10m10m, and
4m4m with and without ground rods, which correspond with
scale factor of 1:1, 1:2 and 1: 5 respectively, were modeled in
uniformed soil. The other parameters including buried depth,
soil resistivity and electrode size were also reduced with the
same scale factor (TABLE I and II).
X

10

9000
8000
7000

4mx4m

6000

10mx10m

5000

20mx20m

4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

Y(m)
Fig. 9. Y-axis potential profile for 16 mesh grid without ground rod
TABLE I
PARAMETERS AND SIMULATION RESULTS OF REDUCED SCALE MODEL IN GRID
WITHOUT GROUND RODS

Scale

Grid

Grid

Buried

factor

dimension

conductor

depth

diameter

Soil

Ground

resistivity resistance
.m

Max. step
voltage,

V
1251.9

cm

20x20

0.6

400

7.85

1/2

10x10

0.3

200

8.24

1266

1/5

4x4

0.4

0.12

80

8.61

1268.7

In fig. 8 and 9, potential values versus the distance from the

grid center were normalized to original grid (20m20m) with
the same scale factor. That means 1 meter in x-axis and y-axis
of 10m10m and 4m4m curves corresponds with 0.5m and
0.2m in the simulation results respectively. Also, step voltage
was calculated between 1m, 0.5m and 0.2m apart in each
model. In comparison with the original grid, the ground
resistance in 1:2 and 1:5 models did have 4.97% and 9.68% in
difference while the step voltage had only 1.13% and 1.34%.

Fig. 7. Grounding grid to be simulated

As shown in fig. 7 it is necessary to plot the surface potential

profiles along the center and diagonal lines of the grid (x and
y-axis). Typical profiles for a 16 mesh grid of three scale
factors without ground rods were plotted in fig. 8 and fig. 9.

280

overcome by using reduced scale model. Although verification

on field would be needed, reduced scale model in simulation
could provide an inexpensive solution, and it could be
effectively used for parametric studies for grounding grid
design.

9000
8000

7000

20mx20m

6000

10mx10m

5000

4mx4m

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

4000
3000

This article was funded in part by a grant from the Vietnam

Education Foundation (VEF). The opinions, findings, and
conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect those of VEF.
Center for Development and Application of Software for
Industry (DASI) at HUT is gratefully acknowledged for its
help during this study

2000
1000
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

X(m)
Fig. 10. X-axis potential profile for 16 mesh grid with 16 ground rods
installed in surrounding junction

REFERENCES

9000
8000

[2]
[3]

10mx10m

6000

[1]

20mx20m

7000

4mx4m

5000
4000

[4]

3000
2000

[5]

1000
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

[6]

Y( m)
Fig. 11. Y-axis potential profile for 16 mesh grid with 16 ground rods
installed in surrounding junction

[7]

TABLE II
PARAMETERS AND SIMULATION RESULTS OF REDUCED SCALE MODEL IN GRID WITH
GROUND RODS

[8]
Scale

Grid

Grid

Radius of

Buried

factor

dimension

conductor

ground

depth

diameter

rod

cm

Soil

Ground

resistivity resistance
.m

Max. step
voltage,

[9]

cm

20x20

0.6

400

7.08

1175.1

1/2

10x10

0.5

0.3

200

7.63

1181.3

1/5

4x4

0.4

0.2

0.12

80

7.90

1179

[10]
[11]

In presence of ground rods, the difference between maximum

step voltage of reduced model and the original one was much
more improved, they were 0.53% and 0.33% in 1:2 and 1:5
models respectively. However, the difference in ground
resistance was slightly higher in the previous case with 7.72%
and 11.55%.
IV.

CONCLUSION

The 3D model of FEM was used for calculating ground

resistance and potential profile of different grounding grids.
The simulation offered a great flexibility in calculating a
complicated grounding system without any simplifying
assumption. The main disadvantage of FEM method when
simulating physical dimension of a grounding grid could be

281

A. P. Sakis Meliopoulos, Power System Grounding and Transients,

Marcel Dekker, 1988
IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding, IEEE Std 80-2000
Mansour Loeloeiaan, R. Velazquez Dinkar and Mukhedkar, Review of
Analytical Methods for Calculating the Performance of Large
Grounding Electrodes, IEEE Trans. on PAS, Vol. PAS-104, No. 11, pp.
3134-3142, 1985.
W. Ruan, J. Ma, J. Liu, F. B. Dawalibi and R. D. Southey, Performance
of HVDC Ground Electrode in Various Soil Structures, International
Conference on Power System Technology, 2002.
J. A. Guemess and F. E. Fernando, Method for Calculating the
Grounding Resistance of Grounding Grid Using FEM, IEEE Trans. on
Power Delivery, Vol. 19, No. 2., pp. 595-600, 2004.
J. A. Gemes-Alonso, F. E. Hernando-Fernndez, F. Rodrguez-Bona,
and J. M. Ruiz-Moll, A Practical Approach for Determining the Ground
Resistance of Grounding Grids, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol.
21, No. 3, pp. 1261-1266, 2006.
J.M. Bueno Barrachina, C.S. Caas Peuelas, S. Cataln Izquierdo and
A. Quijano Lpez, Modelization of earth electrode excited by
atmospheric discharges based on FEM, International Conference on
Renewable Energies and Power Quality, 2008
A. Puttarach, N. Chakpitak, T.Kasirawat and C. Pongsriwat,Substation
Grounding Grid Analysis with the Variation of Soil layer depth
Method, IEEE Power Tech, 2007
Chung seog Choi, Hyang Kon Kim, Hyoung Jun Gil, Woon Ki Han, Ki
Yeon Lee, The Potential Gradient of Ground Surface according to
Shapes of Mesh Grid Grounding Electrode Using Reduced Scale
Model, IEEJ Trans. on Power and Energy, Vol. 125, No. 12, pp. 11701176, 2005
Sherif Ghoneim, Holger Hirsch, Ahdab Elmorshedy, Rabah Amer,
Measurement of Earth Surface Potential Using Scale Model, 42nd
International Conference on Universities Power Engineering, 2007.
Ross Cadecott and Donald G. Kasten, Scale Model Studies of Station
Grounding Grids, IEEE Trans. on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.
PAS-102, No. 3, pp.558-566, 1983.