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Earthing grid parameters with conductor

surrounded by an additional substance

Article in IET Proceedings - Generation Transmission and Distribution · February 2000

DOI: 10.1049/ip-gtd:20000031 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Earthing grid parameters with conductor surrounded by
an additional substance
M.KurtoviC and S.VujeviC

Abstract: An extensive analysis has been carried out of the influence on touch voltage and earthing
grid resistance of placing an additional substance in the trench surrounding the conductor. Earthing
grid resistances and touch voltages have been computed by two different methods: a simple
approximative analytical method and a much more accurate boundary element method. It has been
shown that the approximate analytical method gives sufficiently good results. The influence of the
additional substance in the trench on touch voltages is especially significant for large earthing grids,
whde the influence on earthing grid resistance is smaller.

1 Introduction The earthmg grid parameters, when the additional sub-

The earthing grid conductors of electrical power substa-
tions are buried in previously excavated trenches whch
usually have dimensions 0.4 x 0.8m. A more conductive
substance is added (Fig. 1) to these trenches to improve
earthing grid parameters. The addltional substance can be
sieved soil or another material with improved electrochemi-
cal structure which retains moisture more effectively.
air
w The additional substance in the trench, which has a rectan-
soil
i Pp
i additional substance
stance is included, can be computed in various ways. One
method is the application of the finite element method to
the combination of dlferential and integral formulations
[l]. The second, simpler, possibility is to compute the equiv-
alent radius of the earthing grid conductors. The additional
substance influence is thus approximated using increased
conductor radius in the earthing grid computation [l, 21.
2 Approximate analytical method
gular cross-section, is treated as a cyhder of equivalent
cross-section. Its radius is

I onductor

Fig. 1 Earthing grid conductor and ditionul substance in trench

additional
substance,

The additional substance decreases the resistance

between the earthmg gnd conductor and the adjacent soil. Fig.2 Cyldical conductor Suwounded with addtioml substance and e p i v -
dent cylindvid co&r in homogeneousmbowukd soil
The contribution of the additional substance to earthing
quality is often not analysed and it is treated as an addi-
tional safety margin, which is not calculated. However, in 2. I Cylindrical conductor
some cases this contribution is significant and it should be According to Fig. 2, the voltage between the earthing grid
included in earthing grid design. The positive influence of conductor and a point on the boundary r is
the additional substance in the trench depends on: earthing
grid dimensions, earth resistivity and the resistivity of the
additional substance.
where r, is the conductor radius and h is the linear current
0 IEE, 2000 density along the axis of the conductor. The voltage
TEE Pr0ceeding.s online no. 2omx)31 between the equivalent cylindrical conductor and the equi-
DOL lO.l049/ipgtd:20000031 potential cylindrical surface with radius ro is
Paper first received 7th August 1998 and in revised form 19th October 1999
The authors are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split, HR-21ooO Split,
R. Boskovika b.b. Because voltages U, and U, must be equal, the radius of
IEE Proc.-Gener. Trunsm. Distrib., Vol. 147, No. 1. Junuury 2000 51
 the equivalent conductor, according to eqns. 2 and 3, is
(4)
2.2 Rectangular conductor
In the first step, the rectangular conductor can be substi-
tuted with a cylindrical conductor of equivalent circumfer-
ence [3] (Fig. 3). Its radius is
, w+h
r, = -
7r
(5)
where w is the width and h is the height of the rectangular
conductor.
p2 p2
Fig. 3 Substitution of rectanghr cowhetor by cyl&ical conductor
In the second step, accordmg to eqn. 4, the radius of the
equivalent cylindrical conductor including the influence of
~
the additional substance in the trench is
where ro is described by eqn..'1.
3 Numerical procedurebased on BEM
Using the 2D boundary element method (BEM), the radius
of the equivalent cylindrical conductor can be computed
for the actual cross-section of the additional substance and
for the actual cross-section of the rectangular conductor.
The geometry of the problem for a cylindrical conductor is
shown in Fig. 4.
The region under consideration, SZ, is bounded by an
equipotential line whch is suficiently far from the earthing
grid conductor so that the equipotential line is a circle. The
subdomain SZl is an additional substance with resistivity pl,
while the subdomain Q2 is soil with resistivity p2. The elec-
trical potential distribution within domain SZ = SZl U Q2,
which is bounded by the curve r = rllU r2,(Fig. 4), sat-
isfies the Laplace differential equation Aql = A a = 0. The
normal on the boundary curve rI2 between subdomains 1
and 2 is identical to the external normal belonging to sub-
58
domain 1. The conductor potential qCand the equipotential
line with potential qocan be arbitrarily prescribed.
The boundaries of both subdomains are subdivided into
h e a r boundary elements. Each boundary element has two
local nodes. The boundary discretisation is shown in Fig. 5.
boundary
X
+
Fig.5 Boundaries dkcretkution on boundary elements in cylnzduical eo&-
tor d y s k
The important output datum for the equivalent rkidius
computation is the current density JR on the equipotential
boundary r2,which would be computed using BEM (see
Appendix (Section 7)). Since the current density JR 011 the
equipotential boundary r2,computed using BEM must be
equal to the current density J, which is the exact computed
value for the equivalent cylindrical conductor with radius re
(Fig. 2), the expression for the equivalent radius is
(7)
4 Numerical examples
,
4. I Equivalent radius of the cylindrical earthing
grid conductor
The equivalent radius re of the cylindrical conductor with
radius r, = 55." whch is surrounded with the additional
substance (d = b = 0.4m) with resistivity p1 in earth with
resistivity p2 = 250Qm was computed by the approximative
analytical method (AAM) according to eqn. 4 and by the
boundary element method (BEM). For an equipotential
line with zero potential, a circle with radius R = 20m has
been chosen. The chosen value of the conductor potential
0.20r-
P2h
Fig.6 Equivalent rudius of cyl&ical co&tor
~ BEM
____ AAM
IEE Proc.-Gener. Transm. Distrib., Vol. 147,No. 1. Januar.v 2000
qc = IOOV, the total number of the global nodes on rllis
100, the total number of the global nodes on rI2 is 104 and
the total number of global nodes on r22 is 100 (Fig. 5). In
the numerical computations, the resistivity of the additional
substance has more varying values: 250, 200, 125, 50, 12.5
and zero Qm. The results are presented graphically in
Fig. 6.
According to Fig. 6, the results obtained by the AAM
are a sufficiently good approximation to the results
obtained by the much more complex and more accurate
BEM.
with p = p2 = 250Qm. The earthmg grid conductors in the
first case are cylindrical with radius r, = 5.5" and in the
second case rectangular with dimensions 4mm x 25". In
both cases, the conductors are surrounded by an additional
substance. For the earthing grid current value IOOOA, the
touch voltage at the point P located at the centre of the
edge mesh (Fig. 9) and the earthing grid resistance have
been computed by the program package UZEM [2] for the
aforesaid six values of additional substance resistivity pl.
The touch voltage has been computed using the following
expression:

4.2 Equivalent radius of the rectangular

earthing grid conductor
The equivalent radius r, of the rectangular conductor where Rh = 100OQ is human body resistance and E, is the
(Fig. 7) with w = 4mm, h = 25" which is enclosed with pre-existing voltage computed by UZEM.
additional substance (d = b = 0.4m) with resistivity p1 in
earth with resistivity p2 = 250Qm has been computed by /p
AAM according eqns. 5 and 6 and by BEM. The total
number of global nodes on rllis 84, the total number of
global nodes on rI2is 84 and the total number of global
nodes on r2,is 100. All other input data are the same as in
the cylindrical conductor case. The results are presented in
Fig. 8, which shows that the results obtained by AAM are
a sufficiently good approximation of the results obtained
by BEM.

n, ---- -----
p2

Y I
Fig.9 Earthing grid of electricpower substation

For the radiuses of the equivalent cylindrical earthing

grid conductor which are previously computed, using
UZEM the earthing grid performances have been com-
Fig.7 Rectangulav earthing grid conductor puted. The results are presented graphically in Figs. 10 and
BEM
~

____ AAM 11.

1.o
x R
0.9

0.6
LT

0.4

nl
1 5 9
I I

13 17
I
21
0.31
0.2

P2h
Fig. 8 Equivalent rudius of rectcmgular conductor
~ BEM
o.l
-1
t
_ _ _ ~ AAM 5 9 13 17 21
P A
4.3 Earthing grid parameters Fi .IO Relative vulues o touch voltage mui earthing grid resistunce for
Fig. 9 shows a 96m x 96m 144-mesh earthing grid buried c y b i c a l earthing grid c o d t o r s os a fiction of pip,
~ BEM
at a depth 0.6m parallel to the homogeneous earth surface X AAM

IEE Proc.-Gener. Transm. Distrib., Vol. 147, No. 1. January 2000 59


01 I I I I
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
P h
Fi .I1 Relative values o touch voltage mzd earthing grd resistance for
cycbiurl earthing grid c o dctors us a fiction of p/p2
BEM
~
X AAM
According to Figs. 6 and 10, earthing gnd parameters
computed by AAM and by BEM agree very closely, much
better than the computed equivalent radii. Moreover.
Fig. 10 shows that the earthing grid resistances vary insig-
nificantly with the resistivity of the additional substance,
while the touch voltages in point P vary significantly. The
touch voltages also have the fastest decrease for p2/p1E
[l, 51. Any additional increase of pzlpl decreases the touch
voltage less and less.
It is very important that earthing grid resistance and
touch voltage vary approximatively linearly with pl/p2
(Fig. 11). Using such representation the additional sub-
stance resistivity value p1 can easily be estimated, giving an
optimal decrease of touch voltage.
A good agreement is also obtained between earthing grid
parameters computed for the rectangular earthing grid con-
ductors by AAM and by BEM (Fig. 12).
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
1 5 9 13
P2’Pl
Fig. 12 Relative vulues of touch voltage m2d earthing grid resistreefor rec-
tungular eurthing grid coluhrctors us a function of pl/p2
~ BEM
X AAM
5 Conclusion
The influence of the additional substance in the trench on
earthmg grid parameters can easily be included in the
earthing grid design. Before using existing program pack-
ages, it is only necessary to compute the radius of the
equivalent cylindrical conductor. It has been shown that
the equivalent radius can be computed sufficiently accu-
rately using a simple approximative analytical method. The
validity of these results has been confirmed using a numeri-
60
cally complex program based on the BEM. Good results
are obtained for the cylindrical as well as for the rectangu-
lar earthing grid conductors by the approximative arialyti-
cal method.
The influence of the additional substance on earthing
grid resistance is relatively small. For a electric power sub-
station earthmg grid, the largest possible decrease of the
earthing grid resistance is less than 10%. However, the
touch voltages significantly decrease with additional sub-
stance resistivity decrease. For five times less additional
substance resistivity in relation to surrounding soil resistiv-
ity, the touch voltage above the edge of the mesh centre
I
0.8 1 .o decreases by as much as 40%. However, for an ideal addi-
tional substance with zero resistivity, the touch voltage
decreases by only approximatively 50%. Hence, it is not
necessary to use a special and expensive additional sub-
stance with very small resistivity. The optimal solutiori is to
use an additional substance which has resistivity appmxim-
atively five times less than that of soil. Such a substance
can easily be provided, especially in rocky earth which has
high resistivity and causes high touch voltages. Because the
cost of earthng grid construction increases with earth resis-
tivity, in such cases, the positive effect of the additional
substance is significant.
6 References
1 KURTOVIC, M., and WJEVIC, S.: ‘Potential of earthing grid in
heterogeneous soil’, Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 1991, 31, (4), pp.
677438
2 WJEVIC, S., and KURTOVIC, M.: ‘Numerical analysis of earthing
grids buried in horizontally stratified multilayer earth‘, Int. J. .Vumer.
Methoh Eng., 1998, 41, (7), pp. 1297-131
3 SATO, S., and ZAENGI, W.S.: ‘Effective grounding mesh calculation
technique’, IEEE Trans., 1998, P-3, (I), pp. 173-182
4 BREBBIA, C . A., and WALKER, S.: ‘Boundary element techniques
in engineering’ (Newnes-Buttenvorth, London, 1980)
7 Appendix I
X The potential Q)k of the point pk(xk, yk), whch is lcicated
inside the subdomain Q or on its boundary rplU 1b2,is
described by the Green formula [4] I
(9)
where c k is the constant which depends on the location of
point Pk [4]
1 for p 5 T
apr = -1 forp> T
17 21
1 1
where A is the constant which has been added to the ’Yk to
improve numerical stability.
If the boundary curve is smooth before being approxi-
mated by a set of boundary elements, then at the (:orre-
sponding boundary element intersection point there is
continuity of the normal component J of the current den-
sity. Hence only one global node is located at such a point.
However, in the apex of the rectangular boundary curve,
there is a discontinuity of the normal component J of the
IEE Proc-Gener. Trunsm. Disrrib., Vol. 147, No. 1. January 2000
 current density, and at such a point there must be two glo- where
bal nodes.
On boundary curves rll and r2,, there is only one
unknown (J) at each global node. At each node on the
Giji = apr . p p . / G~ . N ~d .r (17)
rp7.3 \pk
boundary curve rI2 there are two unknowns (J and q),i.e.
one unknown per subdomain.
The potential distribution pl and the normal component
of the current density J along the single boundary element
=a .
H;..
32 pr
rpT3
\pk
1 a"bk
N~ . -
an
.d r (18)

are approximated by In our numerical procedure, the integration in eqns. 17 and

2 2 18 is carried out completely analytically.
For the global nodes, eqn. 15 can be written
i=l i=l NN
where Niis the shape function joined to the ith local node,
aiis the value of the potential in ith node and Ji is the
ck Vk = >: ( G k m .
m=l
Jm - H k m . am) (19)
value of the normal component of the current density at where NN is the total number of global nodes, a, is the
the ith node. potential of the mth global node and J, is the normal com-
The shape functions are defined in the local co-ordinate ponent of the current density in the mth global node. Natu-
system (U, v) presented in Fig. 13 rally, if the mth global node is not situated on rplU rp2,
NI = -
1 - 2u
N2 = -
1 2u + then G k , = Hkm = 0.
(14) The unknown potentials and normal components of the
21 21
current density at global nodes can be computed using the
For simplicity, 'the local nodes of each element are posi- point collocation method eqn. 19 would be satisfied at a
tioned so that the normal always has the position as shown set of collocation points. It is useful to assume that the total
in Fig. 13. number of collocation points is equal to the total number

I" of unknowns. The collocation points are joined to global

; +
Fig.13 Bo- e l m t m the local coordinute system (U, v)
Because the integration along the boundary curve r p r \ P k
is equal to sum of the integrals along all corresponding
boundary elements, then according to eqn. 9
(15)
where NE is the total number of boundary elements in the
whole domain Q and rpvis a part of the curve rprbelong-
ing to thejth boundary element.
Eqn. 15 can be written as
nodes and each collocation point is located at a global
node if at its point there is only one unknown per sub-
domain. If at a single point there are two global nodes with
two unknowns for each associated subdomain, then there
are two collocation points for each associated subdomain
which are moved from the nodes along the associated
boundary elements by one-quarter of the boundary element
length. With regard to the locations of the collocation
points, the potential q k of the collocation point Pk belong-
ing to a single unknown in the ath global node can be writ-
ten
q k = a @ak ' p . @bk + (20)
where Od and @& are potentials of the global nodes U and
b, respectively, of the boundary element containing the kth
collocation point, while the values of the coefficients a and
p are: a = 1, p = 0 if the collocation point is located in the
ath global node; a = 0.75, p = 0.25 if the collocation point
. is moved from the uth global node for one-quarter of the
length of the associated boundary element.
According to eqns. 19 and 20, the system of h e a r equa-
tions in a general case can be written
NN
(a.@ak +p * QTbk) = (Gkm * Jm - H k m .@m>
m=l
k=l, ...,N N (21)
or in matrix notation
C9 = G J - H 9 (22)
By solving the system (eqn. 22), the unknown normal com-
ponents of the current density at all global nodes and the
unknown potentials at nodes which are situated on rI2can
be computed. Finally, the current density JR used in eqn. 7
can be computed as the average value of the normal com-
ponents (4 of the current density at all nodes which are
located on the equipotential curve r2,with radius R.

IEE Proc.-Gener. Transn?. Distrib.. Vol. 147, No. 1, January 2000 61

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