An analysis on the Frequency-dependent grounding impedance based on the ground current dissipation of counterpoises in the two-layered soils

Abstract

Abstract Because of the increased usage of power conversion equipment and their susceptibility to lightning strikes, high frequency fault currents flowing through grounding systems are increased. As grounding systems change from individual groundings to common or integrated groundings, the improved performance of grounding systems against high frequency fault currents is urgently required. When regarding the common or integrated grounding systems, most of them are required to satisfy the ground resistance defined by standards or regulations. The grounding system performance against high frequency fault currents is defined by the grounding impedance. A number of studies have reported that grounding system performance is reduced due to the increase of the grounding impedance with increasing of the frequency of fault currents. In this paper, in order to investigate the characteristics of the frequency-dependent grounding impedances of counterpoises installed in the two-layered soils, the ground current dissipation rates in each 10 m section of the counterpoises were measured and analyzed as functions of the length of grounding electrodes and the current injection point. As a result, most of the ground currents above the frequency of 100 kHz are dissipated into the earth near the current injection point and the high frequency grounding impedance of long counterpoises is converged into that of short counterpoises. The high frequency grounding impedance measured at the low soil-resistivity end of the counterpoise buried in the two-layered soils is much lower than that measured at the high soil-resistivity end.