VALIDATING THE EFFECT OF LIGHTNING CURRENT RISE-SLOPE IN

TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF GROUNDING SYSTEMS USING

NON-UNIFORM TRANSMISSION LINE MODEL

Nguyen Nhat Nam
(1)
, Dr. Vu Phan Tu
(2)
, Prof. Satoshi Matsumoto
(3)

(1) Ph.D. Student at Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan; (2) Lecturer at Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, Vietnam
(3) Professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan
Introduction

In this paper, Runge- Kutta method (4
th
order) is used in non-uniform transmission line model to simulate the transient behavior of a
typical grounding system. Besides, a specific simulation is conducted for the grounding system to verify the significant effect of the
rise-slope of a lightning current to this transient phenomenon.
A co-ordination between transmission line model and Runge-Kutta method is conducted because it not only can be easily applied for
this problem but also can provide the high accuracy.

Simulation results














Fig. 4. Over-voltage at the injected point Fig. 5. Peak value of over-voltage at
when the rise-time changes from the injected point varies with
1s to 8s the rise-time


Table 2. Peak value of over-voltages at the injected point
when the rise-time changes from 1s to 8s





Non-transmission line model

(1)










Fig. 1. Transmission line circuit for a grounding electrode

R, L(x,t), G(x,t) and C(x,t) are per-unit length resistance,
inductance, conductance and capacitance of the electrode,
respectively. These parameters are functions of space and
time which can be detailed-calculated in [1].
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
, ,
, , ,
, ,
, , , .
v x t i x t
Ri x t L x t
x t
i x t v x t
G x t v x t C x t
x t
c c
= +

c c

c c

= +

c c
The grounding system and lightning
current used for simulation

The three vertical grounding copper electrodes are 7.5mm in
radius and 15m long. Connecting copper wires are 5mm in
radius. The grounding system is buried at 0.5m depth in the
soil which has relative permittivity 50 and resistivity 100 Om.
Lightning current: i
s
(t)=I
m
(e
-at
-e
-bt
) (kA)












Fig. 2. A grounding system for simulation Fig. 3. Lightning current wave forms

Table 1. Parameter of lightning currents
-5
0
5
-5
0
5
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5

x(m)
y(m)

z
( m
)
3 vertical
grouding
copper
electrodes
Connecting
copper wires
3m
3m
3m
air
15m
15m
15m
soil
injected
point
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
x 10
-5
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
t(s)
I s
( k
A
)


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Num t
s
(s) Im(kA) a(s
-1
) b(s
-1
)
1 1 1.029 23925 5452900
2 2 1.062 24779 2287300
3 3 1.101 25696 1345000
4 4 1.146 26685 908650
5 5 1.199 27750 662230
6 6 1.261 28896 506050
7 7 1.336 30150 399190
8 8 1.426 31511 322060
0 2 4 6 8
x 10
-6
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
6.5
7
ts(s)
U
p
e
a
k
(
k
V
)
t
s
(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Peak value (kV) 6.722 4.543 3.662 3.177 2.929 2.823 2.692 2.539
Conclusion

Non-uniform transmission line model is applied to simulate
the transient phenomenon of grounding systems in this
research. Through the simulation results, the considerable
effect of the rise-slope of the lightning currents to this issue
can be clarify. This influence can be summarized briefly as
the steeper this parameter is, the less effective the grounding
systems are in distributing the lightning currents into the
ground. Hence, grounding systems used for lightning
protection have to be limited in their length or their building
area to reduce the effect of inductances along their
component electrodes.
References

Yaqing Liu, Nelson Theethayi, and Rajeev Thottappillil, Member, IEEE An
engineering model for transient analysis of grounding system under lightning
strikes: Nonuniform transmission-line approach, IEEE Trans. Power Del, vol. 20,
no. 2, pp. 722 730 , Apr 2005