Impulse Transient Characteristic of Grounding Grids 2AEo 1

GAO Yanqing, HE Jiniiang, ZENG Rong, LIANG Xidong

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract: The lightning transient characteristic of a The paper presents an effective method for this problem,
grounding grid for substation is analyzed in detail, which which is numerical calculation approach based on circuit
especially considers the dynamic and nonlinear effects of model of loss transmission-line with time-variable
soil ionization around grounding conductors and the parameters. It accurately takes into consideration
inductance between grounding conductors. The analysis non-linear effects of breakdown in the soil surrounding
results are calculated by a loss transmission-line model the grounding conductors. This model can be used to
with distributed time-variable parameter. The influences accurately predict the transient characteristic of grounding
of structure of the grid, location of feed point, and shape systems excited by impulse currents.
of the lightning impulse current on the transient
A grounding grid consists of a significant array of
characteristic of grounding grids are discussed.
conductors buried in the soil whose primary purpose is
Key words: transient characteristic, grounding grid, that of safety - limiting touch and step potentials and
lighming, loss transmission line dispersing fault currents to earth.
In the paper, the soil was assumed to be homogenous
I. INTRODUCTION
and isotropic.
The lightning protection effects of substations or
11. SIMULATION OF GROUNDING
GRIDS
transmission lines are related to the impulse characteristics
of grounding grids. In order to obtain a correct design of
In this paper, the analysis results are deduced from a
power system with respect to the protection of
loss transmission-line model with distributed
installations against anomalous events, it is fundamental
time-variable parameter, which is discussed in detail in the
to predict the impulse characteristics of grounding systems
paper “loss transmission-line model . of grounding
When lighming strikes a substation or transmission electrodes considering soil ionization of lightning
lines, high currents generated by the stroke will flow into impulse” collected in the proceeding of this EMC-2002,
the grounding system and dissipate in the soil. Beijing China. The model especially considers the
Lighming-induced voltages and the electromagnetic fields dynamic and nonlinear effects of soil ionization around
generated by such high currents may cause damage to grounding conductors and the inductance between
electronic equipment and power apparatus in power grounding conductors.
system and may be dangerous to personnel working
For comparison of the transient characteristic of
nearby. At the same time, with the widespread utilization
different grounding systems and analysis of the influence
of complcxity and sensitive devices in substations and
of different parameters, a parameter called the maximum
industry, the need for a good quality in the power supply transient GPR is usually used. That is the transient ground
makes the protection against lightning induced
potential rise at the feed point. The maximal transient
disturbances of primary importance. So, how to accurately
GPR gives perception on possible maximum voltages
model and predict the transient characteristic of a
between the grounding system and the remote neutral
grounding system is very important.
earth during the transient process, which is of special
As already evidenced by many researches[l-SI, the interest in EMC studies.
characteristic of grounding systems subject to high
impulse current is dramatically different from that at the 111. TRANSIENT CHARACTERISTIC OF GROUNLWG
low frequency. Because inductive behavior can become GRIDS
more and more important with respect to resistive
behavior and, in addition, these large currents can generate The inductive behavior of a grounding grid becomes
soil ionization, which makes the impulse response more obvious because the frequency of impulse current is
typically non-linear. However, the dynamic and non-linear much higher than power current. As a result, leakage
ionization phenomenon is oRen omitted because this currents along the grounding grid are extremely unequal.
complicated physical phenomenon is too difficult to be And the potentials on the grid are also nonuniform.
simulated. The non-linear transient behavior depends upon
The case is a grounding grid of 2 0 x 2 0 m2 in Fig.1,
many electrical and geometrical parameters. And the
evolution of soil ionization in the time domain is very buried at 0.8 m depth in a soil with resistivity P=SOO
difficult to predict. 0 .m and permittivity f9. The impulse current, with
0-7803-7277-8/02/$10.0002002 IEEE.
276
2.6150 U s double-exponential waveshape and amplitude radius of circular grounding structure with the same area
I,=lOkA, is injected into the grounding grid at one comer of the grounding grid.
(point 1). n-64

The value used for the critical field gradient (Ec)in this
paper is 300 kV/m as suggested by Mousa[6]. The
n-I @ @
voltages at the injection point 1 and the point 2 are shown 0
Jm
in Fig.2, when the impulse current is injected. From Fig.2, 2om
the voltages on the different points of the grid are
extremely unequal.
Fig 3. Illustration of grounding grids

.....
20

* 20m - c:
h
v
k-
10
*.
. '.
'.. -..
.. '...-.
p-2000nm

-..:-.:z=.-:-:;.->>.=
Fig 1. Illustrationof the grounding grid stroked by lighfning ...........................
----- .-__
current

0'
0 5 10 15
r (m)
Fig 4. Influence of the dimensions of grounding grids on impulse
grounding resistance
Clearly, the impulse resistance decreases with the
grounding grid's dimension. But the curve tends to
saturation when its dimension reaches a certain value.
1 When the area of the grounding grid exceeds a certain
value, the influence of the dimension of a grounding grid
on the impulse resistance becomes very small. That is to
say, there is an effective area of a grounding grid when it
Fig 2. Voltages at point I and 2 varied with time is excited by impulse currents.

The lighming protection effects of substations or B. Influence of inierval of grounding conductors

transmission lines are related to the transient When the area of a grounding grid is designated, the
characteristics of a grounding grid. And the transient intervals of the grounding conductors also have great
characteristics of a grounding grid depend upon the shape influence on the impulse resistance. Several grounding
and size of the grid, the shape and amplitude of the grids with different conductor intervals are shown in Fig.5,
impulse current and the feed point. The areas of the grids are all 40X40m2. Here, n is the
number of the sub-grid. And S is the interval of the
IV. INFLUENCE OF STRUCTURE OF GROUNDING
GRIDS grounding conductors.
A . Influence of the dimension of a grounding grid
In order to observe the influence of the dimensions of
grounding grids four grounding grids are chosen for
computations (see Fig.3). The areas of the grounding grids
are changed from 5 X 5mz to 40 X 40mz. But the intervals "44

between neighboring conductors are all five-meter, which (9 (b) (C) (4

keep invariable. Fig 5. Illustration of grounding grids with different conductor
intervals
The influences of the dimensions of grounding grids on
the impulse resistance, when the impulse current (front As is now well known, the ground potential rise in low
time and ampliiude) and soil resistivity are designated, are frequency depends on not the conductor intervals but the
shown in Fig.4. The axis of abscissa in Figd is the area of the grounding grid. But for the high frequencies,
equivalent radius of the grounding grid, which is the the ground potential rise depends on not only the area of

277
the grounding grid but also the conductor intervals, which only enlarging the area of the grounding grid cannot make
we can see from Fig 6. When the conductor intervals are it effectively. But increasing the number of the conductors
less than 20m, the impulse grounding resistance will near the feed point will be an effective measure. That is to
decrease markedly with the conductor interval reducing. say, a grounding grid with an uneven conductor'
From Fig.6, the larger the number of conductors within distribution will be a good choice.
the effective area of the grounding grid is, the more soil
can be used to leak impulse current. v. INFLUENCE OF FEEDPOINT
12
The location of feed point of injected current in low
_..e
..-. frequency has very little influence on the grounding
,. I resistance. Because in low frequency the inductance of

/----
grounding conductors can be omitted and the grounding
grid can be considered equal potential. But for the impulse
lightning current with high frequency the inductance
p=1000nm effect becomes obvious. And the grounding grid is no
longer an equal-potential structure. In high frequency the
feed point will have great influence on the transient
characteristic of the grounding grid.
I J
0 8 16 32 40 The different locations of feed points are shown in
s( m y Fig.8. The curves in Fig.9 and Fig.10 compare the
Fig 6 . Influence of the conductor intervals on impulse grounding maximal transient GPR and the impulse grounding
resistance resistance for the feed point at one comer and the center of
lOOr the grid. In this case, the impulse current is of 26/50 U s
waveshape and amplitude I,=lOkA. The soil resistivity is
100 R m.

h
SscnM02
k
c
v
3

Fig 7. Influenceof the conductor intervals on the maximal

transient GPR
The cuwes in Fig.7 show theinfluence of the different
conductor interval for FigS on the maximal transient GPR.
We can observe that the peak value of maximal transient
GPR decreases when the conductor interval becomes
small. At the same time, the duration time of the maximal
transient GPR will also become shorter with the conductor
interval becoming smaller. That will be significant to
reduce the level of electromagnetic interference around
the electrical and electronic devices when lightning strikes
an electric substation or the towers of transmission lines.
::E
20

IO
--

-.
20m
Fig 8. Illustration of different feed points

The conclusion above is constructive for the technical OO 4 8 12

f (PS)
staff to design and reform grounding systems in the
protection against lightning.. As is now well known, when Fig 9. Influenceof feed point on the maximal transient GPR
we design or reform a grounding device, enlarging the
area of the grounding grid is an effective measure to For the same grounding grid, the maximum transient
reduce the power-frequency grounding resistance and GPR and the grounding resistance for feed point at the
limit the ground potential rise. However, in order to center are much smaller than those for feed point at the
reduce the impulse grounding resistance and the level of corner.
electromagnetic interference generated by impulse current, In the case of feed point at the comer, the notable

278
inductance of grounding conductors will obstruct the
injected impulse current to flow towards other
directions. But for the case of feed point at the center
the grounding conductors can be utilized effectively for
the small inductive effect.
The location of feed point at the center is strongly
fecommended, instead of at the comer.

Fig 10. Influence of feed point on the impulse grounding

resistance

OF IMPULSECIIRRENT
VI. INFLLIENCE
A. Influence offront time

In this case, soil resistivity p i s 500 R .m and relative

permittivity is 9. The impulse current, with amplitude
I,=lOkA, is injected at one comer. Fig.11 shows the
impulse resistance for different values of front time of
impulse currents.

15 -

[=_7
5x~m‘
10xIOm’
IO -
01
0 5 10
r( 4
15 20
I -
c
U .
. _....
...__
.....__
2OxZOrn’

.._.._
Fig 11. Influence of front time on impulse resistance w.- ---
5- -.-._
_,

The curves in Fig.12 show the influence of the front

time of impulse current on the transient GPRs. In this case
the area of the grounding grid is 20 X 20 m2, buried at 0.8
0
m depth in a soil of resistivity P =SO0 R .m and
permittivity e p 9 . The impulse current, with 26/50 P s
and amplitude I,,,=lOkA, is injected at one comer.
For the same grounding grid, the impulse grounding
resistance and the maximal transient GPR are larger for
the impulse current with shorter front time, as can be seen

219
designated. The smaller a grounding grid is, the more grounding grid impulse characteristics depend on
obvious the tendency is. From Fig.14, the maximal grounding grid parameters, the shape and amplitude of
transient GPR generated by high amplitude of impulse impulse current, and feed point.
current is much larger for the same grounding grid in the Analysis is done by circuit theory approach, which
same soil resistivity. based on a loss transmission-line model with distiihuted
time-variable parameter. It accurately takes into account
- - - I =4kA -lm=IOkA non-linear effects of breakdown in the soil surrounding
lm=ZOkA Im=5OkA the grounding conductors.
200 '.. -..
VIII. REFERENCES
--
p loop.
I . . . .

I: ................................... [I] Mavettie C, Veca G M. Impulse Behaviour of Grounding

Electrodes. IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and
Systems, Vol.lO2, N0.9, 1983, pp. 3148-3154
[2] Liew A C, DarGeniza M. Dynamic Model of Impulse
Characteristics of Concentrated Earth. Proc. IEK, Vo1.121,
0 1 2 3 4 No.2, 1974, pp.123-135
(as) f [3] Geri A, Garbagnati E, Veca G M, et al. Non-linear
Fig 14. Influence of amplitude of current on the maximal Behaviour of Ground Electrodes Under Lightning Surge
transient GPR Currents: Computer Modelling and Comparison with
Experimental Results. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics,
The higher amplitude of impulse current can produce Vo1.28, No.2, 1992, pp. 1442-1445
higher field gradient (E) in soil around the grounding
[4] Leonid D G, Markus Heimbach. Frequency Dependent and
conductors, which will make soil ionization more severe. Transiet Characteristics of Substation Grounding Systems.
As a result, the impulse grounding resistance and the IEEE Tronsacfions on Power Delivery, Vo1.12, No.1 1997,
maximal transient GPR will decrease. pp. 172-178
The impulse grounding resistance reveals [5] Dawalibi F, Xiong W and Jinxi Ma. Transient Performance
of Substation Structures and Associated Grounding Systems.
characteristics dependent not only on the geometry of the
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vo1.3 1, N0.3,
grounding grid and the electromagnetic properties of the 1995, pp. 520-527
soil, but also on the front time and amplitude of the
[6] A. M. Mousa, The Soil Ionization Gradient Associated with
excitation. The higher average steepness of the impulse, Discharge of High Currents into Concentrated Electrodes.
not only the short front time, but also the high steepness of IEEE Transactions on Power Delivefy, Vo1.9, No.3, July
the current during the front time, induces higher voltages. 1994, pp.1669-1677

VII. CONCLUSIONS

Paper presents analysis of the influence of different

parameters on the transient characteristic of grounding
grids subjected to lightning impulse current. The

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