Investigations on the Performance of Various Horizontal Ground Electrodes

Experimental work on grounding systems has shown that the characteristics of grounding systems under high impulse conditions are different than those obtained at steady-state conditions. Investigations on the grounding systems under high impulse conditions make it evident that ionization process could occur in soil, due to field enhancement in air voids in the soil. This process can lead to an ionization zone that reduces the impulse resistance of grounding systems (due to an enlargement of a virtually increased cross-sectional area) from its steady state. There have been many studies pointing towards the effect of various soils and the ground electrode’s arrangement on the reduction of impulse resistance from its steady state, and its decrease with increasing currents. It was, however, noted that very few studies on the effect of the configurations of horizontal ground electrodes have been performed by field measurements before. This work presents the experimental and simulated work of various configurations of ground electrodes, with spikes which are thought to enhance the ionization process in soil. In this paper, field measurement was set up, and the results of field measurements were applied with finite element method (FEM) to obtain the electric field values. It was demonstrated that with the addition of spike on the electrodes, a high electric field was computed. The time to peak current, discharged time and impulse impedance were also analyzed for various horizontal ground electrodes.