Electricity & Human Body

.
A complete circuit
- Complete circuit or loop is
necessary for current to flow
Click to add text

- Current takes the path of least resistance

 Electricity & Human Body
“Normal” Electricity in the body
• Muscles
– Muscles control all body movements, activated using small
electrical currents
Including & very importantly, those that keep us
alive: our Breathing and our Heart beat

– The brain controls voluntary muscles using

small current pulses along nerves

– Some local autonomous circuits for involuntary muscles

e.g. Heart
 Electricity & Human Body
“External” Electricity in the body
• External Current through the body overrides
all biological control and causes:
– Loss of muscle control, respiratory, paralysis
including ‘Inability to let go’
– Spasms & Involuntary movement

– Fibrillation of the Heart [no heart pumping]

– Burns - external & internal

 Just a little current can kill
• It is the current driven through the body by
Voltage that creates danger
• Keep voltages low
• Do not make your body part of a circuit
 Just a little current can kill
• 1 mA, slight tingle is felt.
• 5 mA, slight shock is felt, not painful but disturbing. The
average individual can let go, involuntary reactions can
lead to injuries.
• 6-25 mA, painful shock, muscular control is lost
• 9 – 30 mA, called the freezing current or “let-go” range. many
humans cannot get their muscles to work, and they
can’t open their hand to let go of a live conductor.
• 50-150 mA, there will be extreme pain, respiratory arrest, and
severe muscular contractions. Individual cannot let
go, death is possible.
• 1000-4300mA, there is ventricular fibrillation. Muscular contraction
and nerve damage occur. Death is most likely.
• 10,000+ mA, Cardiac arrest, severe burns and probable death.
Electricity & Associated Hazards
– Life support muscles
• Diaphragm and breathing
• Heart Fibrillation Random, uncoordinated heart contractions
De-fibrillation: High voltages (3000 V at 20 A) fraction of a second
– Burns - death of tissue
• Internal [organs]
• External [skin] Usually at Exit & Entry areas
– Indirect Injury
• Falls from ladder
• Thrown back. Fall to ground, onto sharp edge
• Drop objects, injure an innocent bystander
• Thermal burns – Very hot equipment surface, explosion
– Wires & cables
Indirectly probably the most common “electrical” injury
Electricity & Associated Hazards

Wires & cables

Trailing leads
Trips, falls & injury
Equipment damage

Re-route, tidy up, cover over

Electricity & Associated Hazards
 Electrical Appliances

- Safety - design guidelines

- Connectors, cables

- Fuses, Safety devices

- Selection, maintenance & correct use

- Dealing with electrocution

- Environmentally friendly
 Electrical Appliances
Safety guiding principles

– keep currents and voltages to a minimum

Minimise voltages [ and thus minimise current ]
» Inherently safe - Low voltage / low current
– inside apparatus and away from our bodies
Keep Voltages away from our bodies
» Enclosures
» Insulation
» Connections safe & secure
– when a fault is detected Trip out
Trip out when fault detected
» Safety features – Fuses, Switches, ...
Electrical Appliances - Electrical cables & plugs

Mains cable
– Brown Live - power
– Blue Neutral
– Green/yellow Earth
Electrical Appliances - Electrical fuses & ELCBs
Electrical Appliances - Live, Neutral, Earth & Fuses

E
Electrical Appliances - Live, Neutral, Earth & Fuses
Electrical Appliances - Live, Neutral, Earth & Fuses
ELCB Electric Leakage Circuit Breaker
RCD Residual Current Device
RCCB Residual Current Circuit Breaker
MCB Magnetic Circuit Breakers
RCBO Residual Current Breaker
with Over-current protection

– current difference of > 30 mA

– for a duration of ~ 30 ms
 Electrical Appliances - Fuse Vs ELCB
• A Fuse breaks the circuit
• When too much current attempts to flow through an appliance
• Usually the excess current is in Amps [Very dangerous] and it
happens in less than a second
• Must be replaced
• An ELCB breaks the circuit
• When there is a difference between the current flowing in the
Live and in the Neutral wires
• Usually operates when the difference is ~ 30mA [borderline safe]
• Operates very fast, in a small fraction of a second
• Is resettable

Emergency Stop Switch

• Know where they are
• Check occasionally
 Electricity Safety Summary

– High Voltage causes High current

• Keep voltages low
– Electricity require a circuit
• Ensure your body does nor complete the circuit

– Electric current takes the easiest path

• Ensure that all equipment has an earth connection
– When a fault occurs
• All equipment should have fuses and ELCBs
– Wires & cables
Probably the single most common electrical hazard
 Equipment & Laboratory Guidelines
• Use low & safe voltages: Mains voltages are dangerous 230 VAC
• Select equipment appropriate for environment & use
• Avoid electricity where its use could be dangerous.
• Use equipment as per manufacturer’s instruction & design
• Ensure adequate maintenance, damaged case, frayed leads
• Insulate and enclose live parts
• Ground casings to earth
• Prevent conducting parts from becoming live. Earth, double
insulation, separate supply from earth, limit electric power
• Rubbing, Induction & Capacitance effects can build up static
electricity
• Avoid use of daisy-chained power extension boards
• Toxic - Beryllium heat sinks, Incomplete burning can produce
carbon monoxide & other toxicfumes
 Electrocution

• Prevention & Training : Where are red mushroom switches ?

• Response: Immediately cut power, red buttons / switch / plug

• If in any doubt - Do not touch victim.

• One hand behind back, stand on insulation, tip with back of
hand
• Use insulating rod / stick to move wires from victim.

• Call for assistance

• Talk & reassure victim
• If unconscious then use first aid
 Summary

• Awareness of the need for electrical safety

• Potential Source of electrical dangers
• Your responsibility to take care of
Yourself and Others
• Note Safety References for future use
• If unsure never be afraid to ask
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• The TT system has two, separate ground rods.

• The neutral is connected to its ground rod at the
service entrance.
• The protective conductor is connected to its own
ground rod, remote from the neutral ground rod. In
some cases, the ground rod may be the steel frame
of the building. In any case, there is no direct copper
connection between the enclosure and the supply
system.
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• The IT system also has two, separate ground rods.

• The neutral is connected through an impedance to its ground rod at the
service entrance.
• The protective conductor is connected to its own ground rod, remote from
the neutral ground rod. In some cases, the ground rod may be the steel
frame of the building. In any case, there is no direct copper connection
between the enclosure and the supply system.
• One characteristic of the IT system is that the system is tolerant of a fault
to ground. That is, a fault to ground does not operate the circuit breaker,
so the system remains operational. (An alarm identifies the fault to
ground, but the system continues to operate.)
• As in the TT system, there is no direct copper connection between the
enclosure and the supply system.
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• The TN-S system has a single ground rod.

• At the service entrance, the neutral conductor is connected to the ground rod.
• The protective earth conductor is connected to the neutral at the service entrance.
• The “S” in the designation means that the protective earth conductor is a separate
system conductor.
• Unlike the TT and IT systems, in the TN system the equipment and man are
grounded through different paths. If the current through the different paths is
different, then a potential difference will occur between the equipment and the
man, and current will pass through the man.
• To minimize the potential difference due to the difference between the equipment
and the man, it is imperative to keep the equipment ground circuit resistance as
low as practicable.
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• The TN-C system has a single ground rod.

• The neutral conductor is connected to the ground rod located
at the service entrance.
• The protective earth conductor is connected to the neutral in
the equipment.
• There is no separate protective conductor.
• The “C” in the designation means that the protective earth
conductor is combined with the neutral conductor. The TN-C
system is used for electric dryers, electric ranges, and electric
water heaters in the United States.
 Earthing and Bonding

How Does Grounding Provide Protection Against

Electric Shock or a TN-S system?
Earthing and Bonding
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• If the equipment resistance is 0.1 ohm as required by the

various standards, what is the voltage at accessible grounded
parts for various fault currents?
• The analysis is for a 120-V, 15-A, 3% system voltage drop
circuit.
• The current is an arbitrary 150 amperes (10 times the circuit-
breaker rating).
• This current will clearly operate the circuit-breaker in a
relatively short time.
• The accessible part voltage is 33 volts .
Earthing and Bonding
 Earthing and Bonding

• If the equipment resistance is 0.1 ohm as required by the various

standards, what is the voltage at accessible grounded parts in the event of
a short-circuit?
• Clearly, the voltage will not be less than 30 volts? How high is the voltage?
• The analysis is for a 120-V, 15-A, 3% system voltage drop circuit.
• The current is limited only by the source resistances and the 0.1-ohm
resistance of the equipment. (This current will clearly operate the circuit
breaker in a relatively short time.)
• Using similar calculations as for the 150-ampere fault current, the
accessible part voltage is 77.7 volts volts .
 Earthing and Bonding

• For a TN-S system, grounding does not provide an

equipotential environment due to the finite resistances of the
equipment grounding circuit.
• However, equipment grounding through its protective
conductor does serve to limit the voltage for low fault
currents.
• For higher fault currents, another scheme provides protection
against electric shock: limited duration of the current through
the body by means of automatic disconnection of the supply
(operation of the circuit-breaker).
 Grounding design
• A grounding system should be installed in a manner that will
limit the effect of ground potential gradients to such voltage
and current level that will not endanger the safety of people
or equipment under normal and fault conditions, as well as
assure continuity of service
• Substation usually have ground grid system with ground mat
as extra protection.
• Grid system has the form of horizontally buried grid
conductor, supplemented by a number of vertical ground rods
connected to the grid.
 Earthing and Bonding

• Some of the reasons for using the combined system of vertical rods and
horizontal conductors are as follow:
– Single rod by itself is inadequate in providing a safe grounding system. When
several electrodes are connected together and to all equipment neutrals,
frames and structures that are to be grounded an excellent grounding system
is developed
– Grid is installed in a shallow depth usually 0.3-0.5 m below grade, sufficient
long ground rod will stabilize the performance of the combined system.
Resistivity of upper layer soil vary with seasons, while the resistivity oflower
soil layers remains constant.
– Rods penetrating the lower resistivity soil are far more effective in dissipating
fault current whenever a two or multilayer soil is encountered and the upper
soil layer has higher resistivity compared to lower layer.
 Earthing and Bonding

• Design in difficult condition

– In area soil resistivity is high or the substation space is at premium,
it is not possible to use grid system. Some solution to design
grounding in this area is:
1. Connection of remote ground grid and adjacent grounding facilities
2. Use of deep driven ground rods and drilled ground wells in combination
with a chemical treatment of soil or use of bentonite clays for
backfilling.
3. Use of counterpoise wire mat. Copper clad steel wires of AWG No 6
size, arrange in 0.6mx0.6m grid pattern, installed 0.05-0.15m depth,
then the main grounding grid 0.3m-0.5m.
4. A nearly low resistivity material can be used as extra grid. Example: clay
deposit, part of large structure such as concrete mass of hydroelectric
dam
 Earthing and Bonding

Earth electrode & earth conductor

 Earthing and Bonding

Earth chamber
Earthing and Bonding

Earth clip
 Earthing and Bonding

Earth clip bar and test point