268 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO.

1, JANUARY 2013

An Advanced Technique for

Earthing System Analysis
M. K. Abd Elrahman

Abstract—In this paper, a new technique for the analysis of

an earthing system is presented. The technique depends on the
determination of the electric-field intensity around the earthing
system and distribution of the current injected into the soil. The
line integral of the electric-field intensity is used to calculate the
earthing resistance. The electric-field intensity is calculated by
the charge simulation method, where the locations of simulating
charges are optimized by using the particle swarm optimization
technique. The proposed technique is applicable to simple as well
as complex earthing systems. Uniform soil and multilayer soil can
be accommodated. The procedure provides accurate computation
of earthing system resistance and the voltage profile. The obtained
results have been validated by comparison with other analytical
and numerical methods.
Index Terms—Charge simulation method, driven rods, earthing Fig. 1. Stream lines initiated from an incremental surface element.
systems, earthing resistance, electric-field intensity, grids, prox-
imity effect, volume integral equation.

determines the earthing resistance through two main steps. The

I. INTRODUCTION first is calculating the electric-field intensity around the earthing
system. Arbitrary four stream lines which are parallel to the
electric-field intensity starting from the corners of any surface
T HE BASIC requirement of the earthing system is to en-
sure the safety of humans and electrical equipment. This
requirement can be achieved by limiting the voltage gradient
element have to be determined as shown in Fig. 1. The second
step is determining the current injected into the soil from the
same surface element. The earthing resistance is determined by
around the earthed equipment and passing the short-circuit
calculating the line integral of the electric-field intensity which
current to earth without overheating [1]. The physical structure
is proportional to the current density. The line integral has to
of earthing electrodes may take different forms. It might be a
be done from the earthing system surface to infinity. However,
buried plate or a grid or driven rod. A vertically driven rod is
an arbitrary point which has very low voltage compared to the
the simplest and most economical form of earthing electrode
voltage of the earthing system could be used. The path of the in-
because it has practical advantages over other forms of elec-
tegral has been chosen to be parallel to the stream lines. A flow-
trodes [2]. Methods of determining the earthing resistance for
chart showing the details of the proposed technique is given in
single and multiple driven rods by using closed-form formulas
Fig. 2. The methods which have been used to calculate the cur-
have been known for a long time [3]–[5]. These methods were
rent distribution and the electric-field intensity are discussed in
based on many assumptions which lead to inaccurate results.
the following two sections.
The numerical calculation of earthing resistance for driven
rods in multilayered soil was also used [6]–[10]. During the
last three decades, the calculation of earthing resistance for III. VOLUME INTEGRAL EQUATION METHOD APPLIED
complex earthing systems has been performed both analytically TO THE DRIVEN ROD
and numerically [11]–[21]. The proposed technique depends mainly upon the distribution
of the current injected into the soil around the earthing system.
II. PROPOSED TECHNIQUE The easiest method is to assume that a uniform current distribu-
tion is injected from the earthing system. However, to improve
The proposed technique divides the surface of the earthing
the accuracy of the calculation, the actual distribution of current
system into a number of incremental surface elements and then
is essential. This distribution depends upon the current density
distribution inside the earthing system. Once the current distri-
Manuscript received February 07, 2012; revised April 10, 2012, May 24,
bution within the earthing system is determined, the exact value
2012, July 05, 2012, and August 11, 2012; accepted September 13, 2012. Date
of publication November 27, 2012; date of current version December 19, 2012. of the current, which is injected from each incremental surface
Paper no. TPWRD-00128-2012. element, could be determined.
The author is with the Electrical Power and Machine Engineering Depart-
In this study, the proposed technique is applied to driven rods
ment, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo 11792, Egypt (e-mail:
[email protected]). and grids which are commonly used as earthing systems. Grids
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2012.2219597 are considered as two separate groups of parallel conductors.

0885-8977/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

ABD ELRAHMAN: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE FOR EARTHING SYSTEM ANALYSIS 269

Fig. 3. Current density distribution inside the circular driven rod having a di-
ameter of 5 cm due to the skin effect at 50 Hz.

upon the permeability and the distances between the subcon-

ductor and all of the other subconductors. Therefore, is
replaced by . By using these substitutions
in (1), the following equation is obtained:

(2)

where
Fig. 2. Flowchart for the proposed technique.
total number of parallel elements in a given
The two groups are perpendicular to each other. Current den- direction;
sity distribution in each conductor is nonuniform due to skin current density of element ‘“ ”;
and proximity effects. The first effect appears in the case of
single or multiple conductors. However, the proximity effect ap- conductivity of element “ ”;
pears only in the case of multiple conductors. To determine the voltage drop per unit length of element “ ”;
current density distribution, each conductor must be subdivided
geometric mean distance between “ ” and “ ”;
into a number of parallel elements. Each element can be treated
as an isolated subconductor. In an earthing system, these con- cross-section area of element “ ”
ductors are usually several meters long. Thus, an approximate All elements of the conductor have the same voltage drop. The
solution can be obtained by neglecting end effects and solving voltage drop can be eliminated if it is unknown. In this case,
the problem in the cross-sectional domain. Several numerical an additional equation is obtained by summing the elemental
methods are available to calculate the current distribution in- currents in the each conductor
side the conductors. The volume integral equation method is
used here. This method does not require the modeling of non-
(3)
conducting regions and, hence, requires fewer elements. At the
same time, its formulation is very simple. It has a certain equiv-
alent circuit interpretation and, thus, is also referred to as the where
coupled circuit method [22]. The voltage drop across each sub-
conductor is given by and first and last element of the conductor ;

number of conductors in a given direction.

(1)
The current densities are obtained by solving (2) and (3). By
applying the volume integral equation for a single driven rod
The resistance per unit length is replaced by . At of 5 cm in diameter, the ratio of the maximum and minimum
the same time, the inductance per-unit length for each subcon- current density due to the skin effect is 2.53. The current density
ductor is expressed in terms of its flux linkage which depends distribution inside the driven rod is shown in Fig. 3.
270 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

TABLE II
EFFECT OF A SUBCONDUCTOR’S NUMBER ON THE RATIO OF THE MAXIMUM
TO MINIMUM CURRENT DENSITY INSIDE A DRIVEN ROD WITH A DIAMETER
OF 5 cm

Fig. 4. Current density distribution inside two parallel circular driven rods.
Each one is 5 cm in diameter at 50 Hz.

TABLE I
RATIO OF THE MAXIMUM TO MINIMUM CURRENT DENSITY INSIDE TWO
DRIVEN RODS. EACH ONE IS 5 cm IN DIAMETER FOR DIFFERENT SPACING
BETWEEN THE RODS AT 50 Hz
Fig. 5. Equipotential lines around two parallel driven rods.

IV. ELECTRIC-FIELD CALCULATION

For two driven rods of 5 cm in diameter with a separation Several numerical methods are available for calculating
of 4 m, the ratio between the maximum and the minimum cur- the electric-field intensity around the driven rods. The most
rent density is 2.54. However, when the separation is reduced to common methods are the charge simulation method CSM,
0.2 m, the ratio is increased to about 3.15. The current density the finite-difference method (FDM), and the finite-element
distribution for two driven rods 10 cm apart having the same di- method (FEM). The use of FEM or FDM is not convenient
ameter of 5 cm is given in Fig. 4. The ratios between maximum for open boundaries problems. On the other hand, sometimes
and minimum current densities for different distances between the geometry of the area of the problem to be modeled shows
the driven rods are given in Table I. These results indicate that a particular disproportion where dimensions are considered,
for long conductors, the proximity effect could be ignored at like long driven rods or conductors of grids which have a very
4-m spacing between them. small radius compared to its length. In such cases, the use
The determination of the exact current distribution inside any of conventional CSM is not easy or at least time consuming.
conductor can be achieved by selecting the suitable number of Therefore, optimized CSM is used. The particle swarm opti-
subconductors. The selection of this number is not a straight- mization (PSO) technique is used to optimize the location of
forward process. It needs an optimization process between the simulating charges. The adaptation of the PSO technique for
required cost and the achieved accuracy. The main criterion in the charge simulation method is addressed in [23]. To apply
this process was constancy of current distribution with an in- the CSM, the voltage of the earthing system must be known.
creasing number of subconductors. The ratio between the max- This condition is known as Dirichlet’s boundary condition. In
imum to the minimum current inside the conductor was used this case, the voltage of the earthing system is unknown. In
for this purpose. Table II gives the relationship between the ra- the same time we, are not interested in the magnitude of the
tios of maximum to minimum current density with respect to the electric-field intensity but in its direction only. So we assumed
number of subconductors. From the table, it is oblivious that the that the earthing system is having a voltage of unity. Sketches
change in the ratio decreases with increasing the number of sub- of electric fields depend only upon the dimensions of the con-
conductors. For the particular results shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the ductor. Assuming that the conductors of the earthing system
cross-section area of each driven rod was divided into 400 el- are having circular cross section, four contour points were
ements; 20 elements in the radial direction and 20 elements in used to simulate this type of cross section. The total number of
the tangential direction. All results obtained in this section were simulating charges depends on the length of conductors. Fig. 5
calculated at a power frequency with a voltage difference of 1 shows the voltage distribution around two parallel driven rods.
V across the driven rods. The current distribution is the same In the case of two-layer soil, the permittivity and resistivity of
for any voltage difference. Therefore, the relative distribution each layer should be known. The change of permittivity at the
of current could be obtained and is used to determine the distri- soil interface leads to the change in the direction of the stream
bution of injected current around the conductors. lines. Simulation of two-layer soil by CSM needs a large number
ABD ELRAHMAN: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE FOR EARTHING SYSTEM ANALYSIS 271

of simulating charges as well as a set of complicated boundary

conditions especially at the interface between the layers [24],
[25]. In case of soil stratified in more than two layers, calcula-
tion of the electric field will be time and effort consuming. To
overcome this problem, a simplified procedure can be easily im-
plemented to develop a two-layer equivalent model from three-
layer soil [26]. This equivalent model allows diminishing the
computational time required to assess the performance of large
grounding-electrode arrangements during the grid design proce-
dure. The next section discusses the application of the proposed
technique for driven rods and grids.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Fig. 6. Earthing resistance of the driven rods with different lengths.

A. Driven Rods

When a single driven rod does not give a sufficiently low

If, however, the driven rod is assumed as carrying current uni-
earthing resistance, there is an option to use a number of driven
formly along its length, the formula becomes
rods connected in parallel. They should be driven as far apart
as possible to minimize the overlap among their areas of influ-
ences. In practice, this is very difficult because of the limitation (6)
of the available space and so it becomes necessary to consider
the net reduction in total resistance compared to the ideal case.
The method of images has been used for a long time to calculate
The ideal ratio of the earthing resistance of driven rods in
the earthing system resistances [11] and [20]. According to the
parallel to the earthing resistance of one driven rod is 1/n. This
method of images, the earthing system is divided into small
is achieved when the distance between the driven rods is very
elements which can be considered as infinitesimal. Each ele-
large compared to the length of the driven rods. For smaller
ment has the same length and injects an incremental current into
distances, the ratio is larger than 1/n. For example, two 3-m
the soil. Assuming a uniform current distribution, the voltage at
driven rods placed 3 m apart will give a resistance ratio of 0.565.
any point in the soil is the sum of the voltages due to each ele-
If the driven rods are placed 0.2 m apart, the resistance ratio
ment, therefore
is 0.75 [27]. This is because of the proximity effect between
adjacent driven rods. Therefore, one cannot significantly im-
prove the resistance of the grounding system by simply adding (7)
a large number of driven rods to the earthing system. Therefore,
it is important to investigate the minimum spacing required be- where and are the distances between the point at which the
tween the driven rods or, in other words, the area of influence of voltage is required and both of the element and its image. To
each driven rod. The proposed technique is used to calculate the determine the earthing resistance, calculating the voltage is
earthing resistance of parallel driven rods and the contribution required at different points located at distances from the center
of each rod to the total earthing resistance. of the driven rod equal to its radius. The earthing resistance is
1) Single Driven Rod: Although the driven rod is a simple given by the following equation:
practical method of making an earth connection, its shape does
not lend itself to exact calculation. Several approximate for-
(8)
mulas for driven rod earthing resistance have been suggested
[3]. These formulas can be used to calculate the earthing resis-
tance of a single driven rod in uniform soil having resistivity The earthing resistances for a single driven rod 2 cm in diameter
“ .” If the shape of the driven rod is approximated to that of with a different length in soil having a resistivity of 100 m
an ellipsoid of revolution having a major axis equal to twice the was calculated by the proposed technique and compared with
driven rod length “ ” and a minor axis equal to its diameter “ ,” the resistances calculated according to (4)–(6) and (8). The re-
then sults are shown in Fig. 6. The application of the proposed tech-
nique and the analytical and numerical methods almost gives
(4) the same earthing resistance for long driven rods. However, for
short driven rods, the difference between the results increases.
The earthing resistance calculated by the proposed technique
If the driven rod is taken as a cylinder with a hemispherical end,
is nearly equal to the average value of the earthing resistance
the analytical relation for resistance takes the form
calculated by the other methods. Fig. 7 shows the voltage pro-
file around driven rods of different lengths. This figure indicates
(5) that the voltage reaches a value of less than 3% of the driven rod
272 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

Fig. 8. Lower stream line around a driven rod of 2 cm in diameter and 1 m in

length.

this distance will be the same in all directions. Therefore, the

area of influence of any driven rod can be considered as a circle.
The ratio of the circle radius to the length of the driven rod is
reduced when increasing the length of the driven rod. Outside
this circle, the contribution to the total earthing resistance of the
driven rod can be neglected. The slope of the curves changes
when increasing the distance from the driven rod which leads to
changing the step-and-touch voltage everywhere.
Since there is no proximity effect in the case of a single driven
rod and due to the axial symmetry of the current distribution, it
is enough to determine only two stream lines rather than four
stream lines. The upper stream line is at the surface of the earth,
in which the electric field is always radial, and the lower stream
line is somewhere under the surface of the earth. Fig. 8 shows
the stream line which is initiated at one fourth of the driven rod
length.
2) Two Driven Rods: Using the closed-form formula, the
earthing resistance of parallel driven rods cannot be determined
directly. All calculations for multiple driven rods must be based
on the resistance of a single driven rod. One of the approxima-
tion methods replaces the driven rods by their equivalent hemi-
spherical electrodes which have the same resistance [5]. In this
case, the earthing resistance for two parallel driven rods is given
by

(9)

where is equal to the equivalent hemisphere radius/distance

between the driven rods. Another alternative for the calculation
of two driven rods earthing resistance is to use the following
equations [28]:

Fig. 7. Voltage profile around a driven rod of 2 cm in diameter with different

lengths. (a) 1-m driven rod. (b) 3-m driven rod. (c) 5-m driven rod. for (10)

voltage at a distance depends upon the length of the driven rod.

Due to the axial symmetry in the case of the single driven rod, for (11)
ABD ELRAHMAN: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE FOR EARTHING SYSTEM ANALYSIS 273

Fig. 9. Earthing resistance of two parallel driven rods at different spacing.

Fig. 11. Lower stream line of rod 2 in the direction.

Fig. 10. Lower stream line of rod 2 in the direction.

Fig. 12. Current density distribution inside three parallel circular driven rods.
Each one is 5 cm in diameter at 50 Hz.
where is the distance between the driven rods. The method of
images is also used for the case of two parallel driven rods. The
earthing resistance of two parallel driven rods 5 cm in diam- proposed technique is to determine the contribution of each rod
eter and 0.5 m in length is calculated by the proposed technique to the total resistance of the multiple driven rod system. The
and compared with the results obtained by (8)–(11) as shown in current density distribution in case of three parallel driven rods
Fig. 9. The results obtained from the proposed technique agree arranged in a straight line is shown in Fig. 12. Each one is 5
well with the results obtained from (8), (10) and (11). These cm in diameter at a spacing of 50 cm between adjacent rods.
results were obtained for a soil with a resistivity of 100 .m. The contribution of each driven rod to the total earthing resis-
Figs. 10 and 11 show the stream lines around the driven rod tance depends upon the ratio of the current injected to soil by
in and directions at a spacing of 50 cm between the this rod to the total fault current. According to the current ratio,
driven rods. At this spacing, which is equal to the length of the the middle driven rod has an earthing resistance equal to 1.28
used driven rod, there is little difference in the distance required times the earthing resistance of the outer driven rods. The total
to perform the line integral. This difference increases with re- resistance of this system can be improved by controlling the
ducing the distance between the driven rods. The selection of cross-sectional area of the driven rods to control the current in-
the four corners of the incremental surface element on the sur- jected to the soil.
face of the driven rod should be made carefully to determine the
four stream lines. In this case, the two driven rods are equally B. Grids
sharing the earthing resistance. It should be noticed that the ap- The configuration of the grid given as the first example in
proximation used in (9) and the presence of two equations, (10) annex B of IEEE standards 80-2000 [1] has been used to verify
and (11), for different conditions have been eliminated by using the applicability of the proposed technique to complex earthing
the numerical methods. systems. It is assumed that a layout of a 70 70-m grid with
3) Three Driven Rods: The analytical equations and the nu- equally spaced conductors is selected as a suitable design. The
merical methods are also used to calculate the earthing resis- spacing between each two parallel conductor is selected to be
tance of three parallel driven rods. The main contribution of the 7 m. The grid has been treated as two perpendicular groups of
274 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

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ABD ELRAHMAN: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE FOR EARTHING SYSTEM ANALYSIS 275

M. K. Abd Elrahman was born in Giza, Egypt,

in 1963. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
in electrical engineering from Helwan University,
Cairo, Egypt, in 1986 and 1992, respectively, and
the Ph.D. degree in classification of partial-discharge
patterns using texture analysis algorithms from the
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in
2000.
From 2004 to 2009, he was a Lecturer in Omar Al
Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya. Currently, he
is a Lecturer in the Electrical Power and Machine En-
gineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University.