Influence of location of the lead wires on calculation results of grounding transient characteristics of a grounding rod

Abstract

For calculations and measurements of transient characteristics of groundings, the current and potential lead wires are frequently used accordingly to inject the current into the grounding and find the grounding potential rise (GPR). The results of the calculations and measurements can be dependent on the location of the current and potential lead wires due to mutual influence between them and the grounding wire. It is important to determine to what extent the location of the wires influences the calculation results for the grounding with a simple configuration. Notably, in contrast to the measurements, for the calculations it is possible to locate wires vertically, also the potential lead wire can be replaced by the integral of the electric field. For the calculations the finite difference time domain method (FDTD) has been used in the work. In order to estimate to what extent the calculated GPR can be influenced by location of the wires, calculations with different wires locations have been carried out. An analysis of the calculation results has been made. There are calculation methods in which the injection of the current and calculation of the GPR are performed without the current and potential lead wires. The method based on the telegrapher's equations is one of such methods. In order to determine what location of the lead wires gives the same calculation results as those of the method that uses the telegrapher's equations, a comparison of calculation results of two methods has been made. Based on the calculation results it can be concluded that the calculated transient characteristics depend to a different extent on such factors as mutual location of the lead wires and the grounding wire, replacing the potential lead wire by the integral of the electric field, electrical parameters of the soil. Location of one of the lead wires above the grounding wire significantly reduces the calculated GPR. Calculation results for a perpendicular location of three wires (the lead ones and the grounding wire) using the FDTD method correspond to those of the method based on the telegrapher's equation.