Numerical calculation of grounding system buried in vertical earth model in low frequency domain based on the boundary element method

Abstract

AbstractTo solve a grounding problem which describes a grounding system with floating metallic conductors buried in vertical multilayer earth model under a high voltage a.c. substation, a new mathematical model for accurately computing currents flowing along conductors of the grounding system has been developed in this paper, which is hybrid of Galerkin's type Boundary Element Method and conventional nodal analysis method. Propagation effect of electromagnetic wave within the substation has been neglected due to its limited area. A quasi‐static complex image method and new closed form of Green's function for the vertical multilayer earth model are introduced into this model to accelerate mutual impedance and induction coefficients calculation. The model is then implemented in a computer program, which can be used to calculate currents distribution of any configuration of grounding system, and with or without floating metallic conductors buried in the vertical multilayer earth model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.