Analysis of Touch Voltage in TN-S Earthing System

Krishnav Bhatia, Pranav B. Darji and Hitesh R. Jariwala

Department of Electrical Engineering,
S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India-395007
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—.This paper presents touch voltage analysis in TN-S must be ensured under steady state (normal condition) as well
connected earth system. For this purpose, calculation of touch as in the transient state (fault condition) of the electric system.
voltages and touch durations (as per IEEE and International Electric shocks in the power system can be minimized by
Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) standards) with equivalent effectively grounding the equipment and by using protective
formulas is done for different sizes of cable and protective
devices which can clear the fault in permissible time. As
conductor (PE). Cable ampacity calculations for underground
cable as well as thermal sizing of cable and PE are presented. prescribed in [6] hazardous touch voltage is proportional to the
Furthermore, in this paper a novel way of improving the safety in PE impedance. Therefore, the impedance of PE should be kept
TN-S system that is by increasing the size of PE for same cable as low as possible.
size is investigated. It is found that not only touch voltage and The main focus of the paper is to do touch voltage analysis in
body current decreases but also touch duration increases which TN-S earthing system and to make overall system safer and
are desirable conditions from safety point of view. Also, effect of reliable. To achieve this objective, touch voltage and touch
different seasons on touch duration and body current are duration calculations are presented. Touch duration
evaluated. Especially, in raining season when soil resistivity calculations are done for two conditions, one considering the
becomes quite low, it is shown that with increase in size of PE
presence of floor and other one in the absence of floor as per
system can become safer.
IEEE and IEC standards. This paper investigates how the
Keywords—electrical transient analyzer program (ETAP); increase in size of PE for the same size of cable not only helps
exposed conductive part (ECP); permissible body current; IEC; in reducing the touch voltage but also assist in decreasing the
IEEE; NEC; protective conductor (PE); safety; touch duration; body current and increasing the touch duration. Further, this
touch voltage. paper evaluates the effect of different seasons on the body
current and touch durations. This paper provides a unique
I. INTRODUCTION platform for electrical power engineers as it enables them to
From the inception of electric power industry, safety of show the effect of increasing the size of PE in TN-S connected
earthing system. The paper is structured as follows. First
personnel is one of the major concern. With rising fault
section briefly describes the TN-S earthing system. It not only
current levels in the present power system there is renewed
formulates the prospective touch voltage for the TN-S system
prominence on safety. During fault, human touching the
but also calculates the magnitude of touch voltages, fault loop
grounded structures could be subjected to hazardous voltages.
Apart from this, indirect contact can also circulate current impedances and fault currents for different sizes of cable and
through the humans. Current circulating through the human PE. It exhibits how to properly size cable and PE. Second
section illustrates the permissible touch duration and
body can cause electric shock and may initiate the ventricular
acceptable body current calculations. Also, this section
fibrillation, which leads to the cardiac arrest [1]. Indirect
analyzes the effect of different seasons on touch duration and
contact is basically a contact with faulty exposed conductive
body current considering different soil resistivities.
part (ECP) of the system. IEEE standard, P3003.2 defines
ECP as “a conductive part, forming part of electrical II. TN-S EARTHING SYSTEM
equipment but which may become live when basic insulations
fails”[2]. ECPs can be linked to the similar earthing system TN-S Earthing System is a categorization of TN (Terre-
(i.e. TN-C, TN-S, TN-C-S, TT and IT) either separately or in Neutral) earthing system. Several countries of the world
groups or together through a protective conductor (PE), which including U.S.A., U.K., China, Australia, Canada, Sweden etc
is also referred to as equipment grounding conductor (EGC) as are using this system [4]. TN systems are generally provided
specified in [3]. The purpose of PE is to protect the person from public supply system as well as from the substations in
against electric shock by conducting the available ground fault industrial and commercial facilities owned by customers [4].
current without increase in its temperature. Various standards The consumer substation generally consists of step down
such as IEC 60364 accepted worldwide and NEC in U.S. gives transformer with delta connection on primary side and star
basic principles (for ground fault protection) and requirements connection on secondary side whose neutral is solidly
for protection of persons against electric shock due to direct grounded. All the ECPs are connected to this secondary
and indirect contact of live parts by taking into account through PEs. If two different conductors are used, one as a
specific earthing method for the systems not exceeding 1kV neutral and other as a PE throughout the facility, the system is
[4]. According to [5], protection against these two contacts defined as TN-S earthing system as shown in Fig.1.

978-1-5386-5186-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 Fig.3 Fault loop equivalent circuit.

A. Formulation
Fig.1 TN-S Earthing system (with ground fault).
The touch voltage at bus three, fault loop impedance and
Let us explore further TN-S earthing system by considering ground fault current are formulated as follows:
single line diagram as shown in Fig.2.
i) Touch voltage in TN-S earthing system

Here, the touch voltage is calculated across the series

combination of body resistance ( ) and body resistance to
ground ( ) as shown in Fig.3. As already discussed, touch
voltage will appear across PE, therefore it is calculated by
applying Thevenin’s theorem between points X (point of
contact) and G (ground). Thevenin equivalent voltage ( ) or
simply touch voltage ( ) is given by

| |= (1)
+ +

where | | is the magnitude of touch voltage.

ii) Fault loop impedance is

= + + (2)
Fig.2 Single line diagram.
where is the magnitude of fault impedance.
This single line diagram consists of source of 400 MVAsc on
the primary side of step down 11000/440 V transformer (0.6 iii) Fault current ( ) is
MVA, %Z=4, X/R=1.5). On bus 2, a fuse (of continuous
rating 32 A) and a cable along with PE is connected. Here, the | |
= . (3)
main focus is on a circuit which starts from transformer
secondary (acting as a source of 440V line to line) and ends at
bus three to which aggregated induction motor load of 22 HP
is connected, operating at full load current of 27.64 A. It is B. Cable and PE Sizing
assumed that a single line to ground fault occurs at bus three To achieve more reliable and cost-effective design of the TN-
and the system is solidly grounded. As given in [3], fault S system (Fig.2), sizing of appropriate cable and PE is
current returns to the source through PE. The above part essential. Different factors such as cable length, load current,
forming a TN-S earthing system can be represented by fault voltage drop, laying and installation of cable, surrounding
loop equivalent circuit as shown in Fig.3. conditions etc decides the size of the cable. For underground
cable, factors such as ambient temperature, soil resistivity etc
The current in the fault loop is limited by the series of may be considered to determine its size [7]. Sizing can also be
following impedances (Fig.3): transformer impedance ( ), done according to maximum thermal energy that cable and PE
phase conductor impedance ( ), protective conductor able to withstand (under fault conditions) without being
impedance ( ). In Fig.3, is the phase to neutral voltage damaged. Here, sizing of cable and PE is done as per IEC
(254V) and is the touch voltage. standard. Also, difference in sizing procedure of PE as
practiced in IEC and NEC standard is revealed. Sizing of cable (NEC) standards. The cross sectional area (S) of PE is found
and PE is done as follows: equal to 1.01 mm2. In NEC standard, this value corresponds to
the trade size of 17 AWG (i.e. 1.04 mm2) while according to
i) Cable Sizing IEC standard next higher size is 1.5 mm2. Here, we can note
Proper cable sizing should be done so that current carrying that 1.04 mm2 is not a standard size in IEC. Therefore, from
capacity of cable is not exceeded under full load conditions. above discussion it is find out that IEC standard provides
Thus, for full load current of 27.64 A, cable should be larger size of PE than NEC standard. But, as per [3] with the
appropriately sized. Here, cable ampacity calculation is done same rating (32 A) of the over current devices, sizes of PE
based on IEC 60364-5-52 standard with the help of ETAP. A given by NEC and IEC standard are 5.26 mm2 and 4 mm2
three core, 50 Hz, 0.5 kV, copper conductor, XLPE insulated respectively. This shows that trade size given by IEC standard
cable is taken having base ampacity of 28 A, base ambient is less than NEC standard. Therefore, we can conclude that
temperature of 20 °C and base soil resistivity of 250 °C.cm/W. minimum size of PE may differ from one standard to the
It is assumed that cable is buried underground in conduit other. Depending on the various parameters (loading, ambient
operating at ambient temperature of 35 °C with actual soil temperature etc) one can chose the best possible size of PE.
resistivity of 100 °C.cm/W. Therefore, while calculating cable
C. Touch Voltage Calculations
size it becomes necessary to apply correction factors to realize
actual operating conditions. From ETAP, it is found that Touch voltage calculations are done for different sizes of cable
correction factor for ambient temperature is 0.89 and for soil and PE. For the analysis, two cables along with four PEs are
resistivity is 1.18. After applying correction factors on base taken. It is assumed that cable and PEs are of same
ampacity, as per above specified installation conditions the configuration i.e. type (copper), length (20 m), insulation
maximum allowable current capacity is 29.4 A. Based on this (XLPE). Data of cable and PE is shown in Table-I. All data is
cable of 2.5 mm2 size is chosen having ampacity of 29 A with taken from standard BS 7211.
loading constraint of 27.98 A. One size higher than standard
TABLE I DATA OF CABLE AND PE
size (IEC standard) of 2.5 mm2 can also be chosen i.e. 4 mm2
having base ampacity of 36 A to meet future demand.
Cable/PE Size (mm2) Impedance( in ohms)
Sizing of cable can also be done as per formula given in [8].
For this purpose, it is necessary to calculate k, which is a Cable-1 2.5 0.1482+j0.00191
factor dependent on the cable conductor configuration. As per Cable-2 4 0.0922+j0.00179
formula in [9], it is computed equal to 180 ((A.s)1/2/ mm). PE1 1.5 0.242+j0.00207
PE2 2.5 0.1482+j0.00191
Hence, for three phase fault current of 1.9 kA on load side (i.e.
PE3 4 0.0922+j0.00179
on bus three as shown in Fig.2) and with fuse operating time PE4 6 0.0616+j0.00170
of 0.01 seconds, S (cross sectional area of cable conductor) is
found as 1.06 mm2. Next higher standard size of cable as per Two cases are examined. In case-1, cable-1 of size 2.5 mm2 is
IEC standard is 1.5 mm2, but cannot be chosen as it has base taken. With this cable PE of different sizes such as PE1 (1.5
ampacity of 21 A whereas desired value of base ampacity is mm2), PE2 (2.5 mm2) and PE3 (4 mm2) are analyzed. Analysis
more than or equal to 27.64 A. Therefore, cable of either 2.5 is done as per formula discussed in (1), (2) and (3) and results
mm2 or 4 mm2 in size would be appropriate. are summarized in Table-II. In case-2, cable-2 of size 4 mm2 is
considered .With this cable PE of different sizes such as PE1
ii) PE Sizing (1.5 mm2), PE2 (2.5 mm2), PE3 (4 mm2) and PE4 (6 mm2) are
For PE sizing, configuration of PE is chosen same as that of analyzed. Results are summarized in Table-III.
cable. Size of PE should not be smaller than the value From Table II and III, we can conclude that for a fixed cable
determined by the formula given in [9]. Therefore for single size, as the size of PE increases touch voltage as well as fault
line to ground fault current of 1821 A at load side (i.e. on bus loop impedance decreases and fault current increases. Also,
three as shown in Fig.2) and for fuse operating time of 0.01 for the same size of PE, if the cable size increases (from 2.5
seconds, S for PE is calculated as 1.01 mm2. The next higher mm2 to 4 mm2) the touch voltage as well as fault loop current
size available for PE in IEC standard is 1.5 mm2. But, as per increases and for equal size of PE and cable, touch voltage
[3], due to the same conductive material used, size of cable becomes almost half of the source voltage (nominal phase-
and PE should be equal. Hence, cable and PE of size 2.5 mm2 ground value).
would be appropriate. According to [3], minimum size of PE
can also be chosen depending upon the continuous current TABLE II SUMMARY OF RESULTS FOR CASE-1
rating of protective device. Here, fuse having continuous Touch Fault loop
Cable/PE Voltage Fault loop current
current rating of 32 A is used as protective device which gives impedance ( )
size(mm2) (| |) in ( ) in amperes
PE minimum sizing of 4 mm2 as per IEC standard. According volts in ohms
to [3], this leads to cable of also same size (i.e. 4 mm2). 2.5/1.5 154.7 0.398 638.19
Therefore, considering economic and other constraints one can 2.5/2.5 123.9 0.304 835.53
choose between the two sizes 2.5 mm2 and 4 mm2. Now, let us 2.5/4.0 89.4 0.248 1024.19
compare PE sizes given by IEC and National Electrical Code
 TABLE III SUMMARY OF RESULTS FOR CASE-2 where is the resistivity of soil in ohm meters.
Touch Fault loop
Cable/PE Fault loop current
Voltage impedance ( )
size (mm2) ( ) in amperes A. Touch Duration Calculations (IEEE standard)
(| |) in volts in ohms
4/1.5 179.8 0.342 742.69 As given in [11], according to IEEE standard, acceptable
4/2.5 151.9 0.248 1024.19 body current is given by
4/4.0 121.9 0.192 1322.9
4/6.0 97 0.16 1587.5
= 0.116 (for 50 kg body mass), (6)
Touch voltage variations with increase in size of PE are shown
in Fig.4 for Cable 1 (2.5 mm2) and Cable 2 (4 mm2). From it, = 0.157 (for 70 kg body mass). (7)
we can clearly see that with increase in size of PE touch
where
voltage decreases for both the cables. Also, it is observed that
=body current in amperes;
touch voltages obtained for Cable 2 (that is for larger size of
= touch duration in seconds.
cable) are quite higher than for Cable 1.
Therefore, as per ohm’s law touch voltage can be formulated
Cable 1 Cable 2 as

200 = × . (8)
180
For the body mass of 50kg,
160
Touch Voltage in volts

140
= 0.116 + . (9)
120
For the body mass of 70kg,
100
80 = 0.157 + . (10)
60
40
IEEE standard considers the human body resistance equal
20 to 1000 ohms [11]. Calculation of touch duration and
0 acceptable body current for touch voltages of Table II as per
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 (4)-(10) is done for two scenarios:
PE size in mm2
i) In the presence of floor ( = 1000 ohms).
Fig.4 Variation of touch voltage with PE size. ii) In the absence of floor (It is assumed that resistivity of soil
III. TOUCH DURATION CALCULATIONS is equal to 100 ohm meter so from (5) is calculated as
Touch voltage analysis is incomplete without finding the 150 ohms)
acceptable touch duration. Dalziel in [10], has found that the
human body is mainly affected by the strength of the electric Results for 50kg and70kg body mass are calculated and
current. Apart from it, he also finds that duration of contact shown in Table IV and V.
with faulty enclosure has a huge impact on human body. The
amount of current passing through the human body is TABLE IV FOR 50 KG BODY MASS (IEEE STANDARD)
restricted by the series of body resistance ( ) and the Touch
resistance of person to ground ( ) [11]. Therefore, total Touch Voltage Acceptable body current ( ) duration
resistance of the human body is given by ( ) in volts in mA ( ) in
seconds
Presence of floor
= + . (4) 154.7 77.3 2.25
123.9 62 3.5
If a person is in a building i.e. in the presence of floor, is 89.4 44.7 6.73
Absence of floor
considered atleast 1000 ohms [12]. In the absence of floor, it is 154.7 135 0.74
calculated by considering the person’s feet as two circular 123.9 107.7 1.077
plates, in contact with soil of radius 0.08m. It is approximately 89.4 77.9 2.23
given by [12]

= 8 = 1.5 . (5)
 Permissible values of body current and touch durations are
TABLE V FOR 70 KG BODY MASS (IEEE STANDARD) shown in Table VII.
Touch
Touch Voltage Acceptable body current ( ) duration TABLE VII IEC STANDARD
( ) in volts in mA ( ) in
seconds Touch
Touch Voltage Acceptable body current ( )in
Presence of floor duration ( )
( ) in volts mA
154.7 78.5 4 in seconds
123.9 62 6.42 Presence of floor
89.4 44.9 12.3 154.7 100.6 0.5
Absence of floor 123.9 79.7 0.6
154.7 134.2 1.36 89.4 56.4 0.8
123.9 107.5 2.12 Absence of floor
89.4 78.5 4 154.7 224.9 0.3
123.9 176 0.4
89.4 121.5 0.5
B. Touch Duration Calculations (IEC standard)
In IEC standard, human body impedance is not fixed as in Tables (IV, V and VII) infer that as touch voltage decreases,
the case of IEEE standard for hand to hand, hand to feet and acceptable body current decreases and touch duration
foot to foot paths (i.e. 1000 ohms). Instead, this standard increases. It is found that in the absence of floor, the
considers the human body impedance as a non linear function acceptable body current mainly depends on the body
of prospective touch voltage [11]. IEC standard provides value resistance to ground (i.e. ) which solely depends on the soil
of permissible body current against electric shock duration as resistivity. It means that more the resistivity of soil, lesser will
shown in Fig.5. Points on curve c-1 represent 0.14% of be the acceptable body current. In IEEE standard, acceptable
ventricular fibrillation [12]. As given in [12], the permissible body currents for 50 kg and 70 kg body mass are found to be
body current in correspondence with any value of touch almost similar but touch durations for 70 kg body mass are
voltage and (body resistance for hand to feet contact in almost increased by 70% as compared to that of 50 kg body
ohms) can be found with mass.
C. Seasonal Influences on Acceptable Body Current and
= × + . (11) Touch Duration
Seasonal influences on acceptable body current and touch
After calculating the value of that is body current for the
duration can be evaluated by considering the changes in soil
given value of touch voltage from (11) its corresponding
resistivity with respect to different seasons. As per [13], in
maximum permissible contact duration can be known from
rainy season soil resistivity can go as low as to 10 ohm meter,
curve c1.
while in freezing season it can become as high as 5000 ohm
10000 meter. Such wide change in soil resistivity has a huge impact
on acceptable body currents and touch durations. To show the
Duration of

c1 curve
flow, ms

seasonal influences in TN-S earthing system (as per IEEE

current

1000
standard for 50 kg body mass in the absence of floor), two
100 cases are considered. In case-1, a cable of size 2.5 mm2 along
10
with PE of size 1.5 mm2 is taken while in case-2 cable of same
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 size along with PE of size 4 mm2 is taken. Results obtained for
Body current, mA
different seasons are shown in Fig.6 below.
Fig.5 Permissible body current for IEC. It can be interpreted from the results that in rainy season due
to lower values of soil resistivity, is quite higher and touch
Let us now calculate touch duration and acceptable body durations are quite low (such as for soil resistivity of 10 ohm
current according to IEC standard for the same scenario as meter, is 152.4 mA and is 0.58s for case-1), thus the
considered in IEEE standard. Values of for three system is unsafe for humans. On the other hand, if frozen layer
different touch voltages are taken from [12], for 5% of the is formed on the upper surface of soil which generally happens
population (as shown in Table-VI). in the freezing season, the overall resistivity of the soil is
increased due to which it is seen that decreases and the
TABLE VI VALUES OF ZH-2F
touch duration increases (such as for soil resistivity of 5000
Touch Voltage ( ) in Estimated value of ohm meter, is 18.2 mA and is 40.8s for case-1) and thus
volts in ohms
the safety is increased. Further, on comparing the two cases, it
154.7 538
123.9 554
can be seen from Fig.6 that for case-2 (as compared to that of
89.4 586 case-1), values of are lower and are quite higher as
desired from safety point of view. It shows that overall safety
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NEC standard adopted in sizing of PE is presented. This paper
illustrates touch voltage analysis in TN-S connected earth
system for different combinations of cable and PE and
emphasize that it should be necessarily done, to ensure the
safety of personnel. Further, in the paper, the need of having a
higher size of PE in the TN-S system is realized. From the
analytical calculations, it is found that with higher size of PE
in the system, the touch voltage to which humans are exposed
can be reduced. This technique proves to be very effective in
rainy season, when people are more prone to electric shocks.
Hence, from the safety point of view, authors proposed the
inclusion of higher size of PEs in the systems, be mandated.
Touch voltage analysis should be an essential part of the
power system studies.
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