Simulations of Frequency-dependent Impedance of Ground Rods Considering Multi-layered Soil Structures

Abstract

Lightning has a broad frequency spectrum from DC to a few MHz. Consequently, the high frequency performance of grounding systems for protection against lightning should be evaluated, with the distributed parameter circuit model in a uniform soil being used to simulate grounding impedances. This paper proposes a simulation method which applies the distributed parameter circuit model for the frequency-dependent impedance of vertically driven ground rods by considering multi-layered soil structures where ground rods are buried. The Matlab program was used to calculate the frequency-dependent ground impedances for two ground rods of different lengths. As a result, an increase of the length of ground rod is not always followed by a decrease of grounding impedance, at least at a high frequency. The results obtained using the newly proposed simulation method considering multi-layered soil structures are in good agreement with the measured results.