INTRODUCTION

• What do the terms grounding and bonding mean?

• Grounding is a conducting connection by which an electrical circuit or

equipment is connected to earth or to some conducting body of relatively
large extent that serves in place of earth.

• Bonding is intentional electrical interconnecting of conductive paths in

order to ensure common electrical potential between the bonded parts.

• The primary purpose of grounding and bonding is electrical safety, but does
safety cover personal protection or equipment protection, or both?
• Most people would equate electrical safety with personal protection (and
rightfully so), but equipment protection may be viewed as an extension of
personal protection.

• An electrical device grounded so that it totally eliminates shock hazards but

could still conceivably start a fire is not a total personal protective system.

• This is why even though personal safety is the prime concern, equipment
protection is also worthy of consideration when configuring a grounding
system methodology.

• Two microelectronic devices that communicate with each other and interpret
data require a common reference point from which to operate.
• The ground plane for such devices should provide a low-impedance reference
plane for the devices, and any electrical noise induced or propagated to the
ground plane should have very minimal impact on the devices.

• One point that cannot be stressed enough is that nothing that we do to

grounding and bonding should compromise personal safety.

SHOCK AND FIRE HAZARDS

• Grounding and bonding of electrical devices and systems are vital to ensuring
that people living or working in the environment will be adequately protected.

• We will start by looking into why personal safety is dependent on grounding

and bonding.
• Table lists physiological hazards associated with passage of electrical
current through an average human body.

• The resistance of an average human under conditions when the skin is dry is
about 100 kΩ or higher.

• When the skin is wet, the resistance drops to 10 kΩ or lower. It is not

difficult to see how susceptible humans are to shock hazard.
•Figures a and b illustrate what would happen if a person came in contact
with the frame of an electric motor where, due to insulation deterioration, a 480-
V phase is in contact with the frame.
•Figure a is the condition of the frame being bonded to the service ground
terminal, which in turn is connected to the building ground electrode.
• If the power source feeding the motor is a grounded source, this condition in
all likelihood would cause the overcurrent protection (such as the fuse or
circuit breaker) to operate and open the circuit to the motor.

• If the power source feeding the motor is an ungrounded source (such as a Δ -

connected transformer), no over current protection is likely to operate;

• However, the phase that is contacting the frame will be brought to the ground
potential and the person touching the frame is not in danger of receiving an
electric shock.

• On the other hand, consider Figure b, where the motor frame is not bonded to
a ground. If the source feeding the motor were a grounded source,
considerable leakage current would flow through the body of the person.

• The current levels can reach values high enough to cause death.
• If the source is ungrounded, the current flow through the body will be
completed by the stray capacitance of cable used to connect the motor to the
source.

• Ex For a 1/0 cable the stray capacitance is of the order of 0.17μF for a 100-ft
cable. The cable reactance is approximately 15,600Ω.

• Currents significant enough to cause a shock would flow through the person
in contact with the motor body.
ESSENTIALS OF A GROUNDED SYSTEM

• Figure shows the essential elements of a grounded electrical power system.

• It is best to have a clear understanding of the components of a ground

system to fully grasp the importance of grounding for safety and power
quality.
• The elements are defined as follows:
1. Grounded conductor: A circuit conductor that is intentionally grounded
(for example, the neutral of a three-phase Wye connected system or the
midpoint of a single-phase 240/120 V system)
2. Grounding conductor: A conductor used to connect the grounded circuit of
a system to a grounding electrode or electrodes.
3. Equipment grounding conductor: Conductor used to connect the non-
current carrying metal parts of equipment, raceways, and other enclosures
to the system grounded conductor, the grounding electrode conductor, or
both at the service equipment or at the source of a separately derived
system.
4. Grounding electrode conductor: Conductor used to connect the grounding
electrode to the equipment grounding conductor, the grounded conductor,
or both.
5. Main bonding jumper: An unspliced connection used to connect the
equipment grounding conductor and the service disconnect enclosure to the
grounded conductor of a power system
6. Ground: Earth or some conducting body of relatively large extent that serve in
place of the earth.
7. Ground electrode: A conductor or body of conductors in intimate contact wit
the earth for the purpose of providing a connection with the ground
 GROUND ELECTRODES
• In this section, various types of ground electrodes and their use will be
discussed.

• The following elements are part of a ground electrode system in a facility:

1. Metal underground water pipe

2. Metal frame of buildings or structures

3. Concrete-encased electrodes

4. Ground ring

• Other made electrodes, such as underground structures, rod and pipe

electrodes, and plate electrodes, when none of the above-listed items is available.
• The code prohibits the use of a metal underground gas piping system as a
ground electrode. Also, aluminum electrodes are not permitted.

• The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that the ground electrode system
is large enough to present low impedance to the flow of fault energy.

• It should be recognized that, while any one of the ground electrodes may be
adequate by itself, bonding all of these together provides a superior ground
grid system.

• Why all this preoccupation with ground systems that are extensive and
interconnected?

• The answer is low impedance reference. A facility may have several

individual buildings, each with its own power source.
• Each building may even have several power sources, such as transformers,
uninterruptible power source (UPS) units, and battery systems.

• It is important that the electrical system or systems of each building become

part of the same overall grounding system.

• The additional benefits to the creation of a low-impedance earth-ground

system is the fact that when an overhead power line contacts the earth, a low-
impedance system will help produce ground-fault currents of sufficient
magnitude to operate the overcurrent protection.

• When electrical charges associated with lightning strike a building and its
electrical system, the lightning energy could pass safely to earth without
damaging electrical equipment or causing injury to people.
 EARTH RESISTANCE TESTS
• The earth resistance test is a means to ensure that the ground electrode
system of a facility has adequate contact with earth.

• Figure shows how an earth resistance tester is used to test the resistance
between the ground grid and earth.

• The most common method of testing earth resistance is the fall of potential
test, for which the earth resistance tester is connected as shown in Figure.

• The ground electrode of the facility or building is used as the reference

point.
• Two ground rods are driven as indicated. The farthest rod is called the
current rod (C2), and the rod at the intermediate point is the potential rod
(P2).

• A known current is circulated between the reference electrode and the

current rod.

• The voltage drop is measured between the reference ground electrode and
the potential rod.

• The ground resistance is calculated as the ratio between the voltage and the
current.

• The tester automatically calculates and displays the resistance in ohms. The
potential rod is then moved to another location and the test repeated. The
resistance values are plotted against the distance from the reference rod.
• The earth resistance is represented by the value corresponding to the flat
portion of the curve.

• In typical ground grid systems, the value at a distance 62% of the total
distance between the reference electrode and the current rod is taken as the
resistance of the ground system with respect to earth.

• The distance between the reference electrode and the current rod is determined
by the type and size of the ground grid system. For a single ground rod, a
distance of 100 to 150 ft is adequate.

• For large ground grid systems consisting of multiple ground rods, ground
rings, or concrete-encased systems, the distance between the reference ground
electrode and the current rod should be 5 to 10 times the diagonal measure of
the ground grid system.
• The reason is that, as currents are injected into the earth, electrical fields are
set up around the electrodes in the form of shells.

• To prevent erroneous results, the two sets of shells around the reference
electrode and the current electrode should not overlap.

• The greater the distance between the two, the more accurate the ground
resistance test results.

• Earth resistance of 25 Ω is adequate for residential and small commercial

buildings.

• For large buildings and facilities that house sensitive loads, a resistance value
of 10 Ω is typically specified.

• For buildings that contain sensitive loads such as signal, communication, and
data-processing equipment, a resistance of 5 Ω or less is sometimes specified.
• Earth resistance depends on the type of soil, its
mineral composition, moisture content, and
temperature.
 EARTH–GROUND GRID SYSTEMS
• Ground grids can take different forms and shapes. The ultimate purpose is to
provide a metal grid of sufficient area of contact with the earth so as to
derive low resistance between the ground electrode and the earth.

• Two of the main requirements of any ground grid are to ensure that it will be
stable with time and that it will not form chemical reactions with other metal
objects in the vicinity.

1. GROUND RODS

Ground rods should be not less than 8 ft long and should consist of the
following:

• Electrodes of conduits or pipes that are no smaller than 3/4-inch trade size;
when these conduits are made of steel, the outer surface should be galvanized
or otherwise metal-coated for corrosion protection
• Electrodes of rods of iron or steel that are at least 5/8 inches in diameter; the
electrodes should be installed so that at least an 8-ft length is in contact with
soil.

• Typically, copper-clad steel rods are used for ground rods. Steel provides the
strength needed to withstand the forces during driving of the rod into the
soil, while the copper coating provides corrosion protection and also allows
copper conductors to be attached to the ground rod.
2. PLATES
• Rectangular or circular plates should present an area of at least 2 ft2 to the
soil. Electrodes of iron and steel shall be at least 1/4 inch in thickness;

• Electrodes of nonferrous metal should have a minimum thickness of 0.06

inch. Plate electrodes are to be installed at a minimum distance of 2.5 ft
below the surface of the earth.

• Table gives the earth resistance values for circular plates buried 3 ft below
the surface in soil with a resistivity of 10,000 Ω-cm.
3. GROUND RING

• The ground ring encircling a building in direct contact with the earth should
be installed at a depth of not less than 2.5 ft below the surface of the earth.

• The ground ring should consist of at least 20 ft of bare copper conductor.

• Typically, ground rings are installed in trenches around the building, and
wire tails are brought out for connection to the grounded service conductor at
the service disconnect panel or switchboard. It is preferred that a continuous
piece of wire be used.

• If wires are spliced together, the connections should be made using

exothermic welding or listed wire connectors.
• Table provides the resistance of two conductors buried 3 ft below the surface
for various conductor lengths.

• The values contained in the table are intended to point out the variations that
may be obtained using different types of earth electrodes.
 POWER GROUND SYSTEM
• A good ground electrode grid system with low resistance to earth is a vital
foundation for the entire power system for the facility.

• As we mentioned earlier, the primary objective of power system grounding is

personal safety, in addition to limiting damage to equipment.

• When a ground fault occurs, large ground return currents are set up which
causes the overcurrent protection to open and isolate the load from the power
source.

• In many cases, the phase overcurrent protection is depended upon to perform

this function during a ground fault.
• Arcing ground faults generate considerably lower fault currents than bolted
ground faults or direct short circuits between phase and ground.

• The possibility of arcing ground faults in systems rated less than 150 V to
ground should be acknowledged, and ground fault protection against low-
level ground faults should be provided for the power system.

• The ground fault protection is set at levels considerably lower than the phase
fault protection.

• For instance, a 1000-A-rated overcurrent protection system may have the

ground fault protection set at 200 A or lower.

• The setting of the ground fault device depends on the degree of protection
required, as this requirement is strictly ground fault protection for equipment.
 SIGNAL REFERENCE GROUND

• Signal reference ground (SRG) is a relatively new term.

• The main purpose of the signal reference ground is not personal safety or
equipment protection but merely to provide a common reference low-
impedance plane from which sensitive loads may operate.

• If the reference ground is a high-impedance connection, voltage differentials

may be created that would affect the point of reference for the two devices, so
lowering the impedance between the reference points of the two circuits lowers

the potential for coupling of noise between the devices.

• When we mention low impedance, we mean low impedance at high frequencies.

• For power frequency, even a few hundred feet of wire can provide adequate
impedance, but the situation is different at high frequencies.

• Example - when two devices are connected to a 10-ft length of #4 copper

conductor ground wire:

The DC resistance of the wire is = 0.00025 Ω

The inductive reactance at 60 Hz = 0.0012 Ω

Inductive reactance at 1 MHz ≅ 20 Ω

• If a noise current of 100 mA at 1 MHz is to find its way into the ground wire
between the two devices, the noise voltage must be 2 V, which is enough to cause
the devices to lose communication and perhaps even sustain damage, depending
on the device sensitivity.
• This example is a simple situation consisting of only two devices; however,
hundreds and perhaps thousands of such devices or circuits might be present
in an actual computer or communication data center.

• All these devices require a common reference from which to operate. This is
accomplished by the use of the SRG.

• The main purpose of the SRG is not electrical safety, even though nothing that
we do to the ground system should compromise safety;

• rather, the SRG is a ground plane that provides all sensitive equipment
connected to it a reference point from which to operate without being unduly
affected by noise that may be propagated through the SRG by devices external
or internal to the space protected by the SRG.
• What we mean by this is that noise may be present in the SRG, but the presence
of the noise should not result in voltage differentials or current loops of levels
that could interfere with the operation of devices that use the SRG for reference.

• The SRG is not a stand-alone entity; it must be bonded to other building ground
electrodes such as building steel, ground ring, or concrete-encased electrodes.

• This requirement permits any noise impinging on the SRG to be safely

conducted away from the SRG to building steel and the rest of the ground grid
system.
 SIGNAL REFERENCE GROUND
METHODS
• The SRG can take many forms, depending on the user preference.

• Some facilities use a single conductor installed underneath the floor and
looped around the space of the computer center.

• While this method is practical, it is limited in functionality due to the large

impedances associated with long wires.

• Larger computer data centers use more than one conductor but the
limitations are the same as stated above.

• A preferred SRG consists of #2 AWG or larger copper conductor laid

underneath the floor of the computer or communication center to form a
grid of 2 × 2-ft squares as shown in figure.
• By creating multiple parallel paths, the impedance for the reference plane is
made equal for all devices and circuits sharing the SRG.

• If the impedance is measured at any two nodes of the SRG and plotted against
frequency, the shape of the frequency characteristics would appear as shown
in Figure.
• The impedance vs. frequency graph should appear the same across any two sets
of nodes of the SRG, as this is the main objective of the SRG.

• Some installations use copper strips instead of circular conductors to form the
grid.

• Other facilities might use sheets of copper under the floor of the computer
center as the SRG.

• Constructing an SRG with a continuous sheet of copper creates a reference

plane made up of infinite parallel paths instead of a discrete number of parallel
paths as with SRGs made up of circular wires.

• The SRG is also bonded to the building steel and the stanchions that support the
raised floor of the computer center.

• Such an arrangement provides excellent noise immunity and allows the creation
of a good reference plane for the sensitive circuits.
• Figure depicts how an SRG for a large-sized computer center might be
configured.

• Some installations use aboveground wiring methods instead of a raised-floor

configuration.

• The principle behind the configuration of the SRG does not change whether the
ground reference plane is below ground or above ground.

• It is important that all noise producing loads be kept away from the SRG.

• If such loads are present, they should be located at the outer periphery of the data
center and bonded to the building steel, if possible.
 SINGLE-POINT AND MULTIPOINT
GROUNDING
• With multipoint grounding, every piece of equipment sharing a common space
or building is individually grounded

• whereas, with single-point grounding, each piece of equipment is connected to

a common bus or reference plane, which in turn is bonded to the building
ground grid electrode

• Multipoint grounding is adequate at power frequencies.

• For typical power systems, various transformers, UPS systems, and

emergency generators located in each area or floor of the building are
grounded to the nearest building ground electrode, such as building steel or
cold water pipe.
• Generally, this method is both convenient and economical, but it is neither
effective nor recommended for grounding sensitive devices and circuits.

• As we saw, the primary purpose of grounding for sensitive equipment is the

creation of a reference plane.

• This is best accomplished by single point grounding and bonding means.

• The SRG must also be bonded to the building ground electrode to ensure
personal safety.
 GROUND LOOPS

• Ground loop is defined as a potentially detrimental loop formed when two or

more points in an electrical system that are normally at ground potential are
connected by a conducting path such that either or both points are not at the
same potential.

• Let’s examine the circuit shown in Figure. Here, the ground plane is at
different potentials for the two devices that share the ground circuit.

• This sets up circulation of currents in the loop formed between the two devices
by the common ground wires and the signal ground conductor.

• Such an occurrence can result in performance degradation or damage to

devices within the loop.
• Ground loops are the result of faulty or improper facility wiring practices that
cause stray currents to flow in the ground path, creating a voltage differential
between two points in the ground system.

• They may also be due to a high-resistance or high-impedance connection

between a device and the ground plane.

• Because the signal common or ground conductor is a low-impedance

connection, it only takes a low-level ground loop potential to cause significant
current to flow in the loop.

• By adhering to sound ground and bonding practices, as discussed throughout

this chapter, ground loop potentials can be minimized or eliminated
 CONCLUSIONS
• A conclusion that we can draw is that grounding is not an area where one can
afford to be lax.

• Reference is fundamental to the existence of stability.

• For electrical systems, reference is the ground or some other body large
enough to serve in place of the ground, and electrical stability depends on how
sound this reference is.

• We should not always think of this reference as a ground or a ground connected

to the earth.

• Problems arise when we do not understand what the reference is for a

particular application or we compromise the reference to try to make a system
work.
• Grounding is the foundation of any electrical power, communication, or
data-processing system; when the foundation is taken care of, the rest of the
system will be stable.