Simulation of the electric field and the GPR resulting from vertical-driven rods earthing system in a multi-layers earth structure

Abstract

A three-dimensional model for calculating the ground potential rise and the electric field distributed at the ground surface of an earthing system using driven vertical rods is presented. The electric field distribution is obtained by using Laplace's equation which is solved by finite element method. The presented model for simulating electrical field is a three-dimensional field problem with different types of earth models; one and two- layers earth models, in two different cases. The first case is represented by one driven rod while the second one is represented by three driven rods. The strength of the finite element method in this application is in its ability to allow a detailed representation of the types of the soil and different cases of the rod simulation. The new simulation model has been assessed through comparing the vertical field strength over the vertical driven rod surface, with that estimated one in other experimental and computational work. A primarily simulation for investigating the thermal effect is achieved and more investigation about this point will be presented in the future papers.