Grounding Grid Integrity
Grounding Grid Integrity
Grounding Grid Integrity
REPORT 2017:405
NUCLEAR
PETER ULRIKSEN
TORLEIF DAHLIN
Foreword
A cupper grounding grid is placed underneath the entire nuclear power
plant, including the substation. The purpose of the grounding grid is to
serve the dual purpose of carrying currents into the earth without
exceeding the operating tolerances of any protected equipment while
assuring that personnel in the vicinity are not exposed to electric shock as
would result from excessive step or touch potentials. Similar designs are
used in substations in the grid.
The grounding grid was installed upon the construction of the nuclear power
plants. Since then, many additional constructions and installations have been
performed on the site, and in some cases, it is unclear if the grounding grid has
been properly considered in these activities. Also, given that the grid is buried
under ground, it is difficult to inspect to verify if there are corrosion attacks.
Thereby, it would be beneficial if a non-destructive testing method could be
identified, to verify the integrity of the grounding grid.
Reported here are the results and conclusions from a project in a research program run by
Energiforsk. The author / authors are responsible for the content and publication which does
not mean that Energiforsk has taken a position.
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Sammanfattning
Denna rapport är en förstudie inför utvärdering av metoder för att
lokalisera skador i jordlinenät.
Skador kan upptäckas på två nivåer, dels globalt genom impedansmätnig i
accesspunkter till jordningen och dels lokalt genom att antingen leda ström med
känd frekvens genom nätet och mäta signaturer på markytan eller genom att med
induktiva metoder alstra virvelströmmar i jordlinorna, vilka kan mätas på ytan.
Rapporten beskriver metoder som rekommenderas för lokala undersökningar och
presenterar en möjlig försöksplan omfattande laborativa och fältmässiga prov.
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Summary
This report is a pre-study before a systematic study of methods suitable
to locate damage in grounding grids is made.
Damages can be detected in two levels, globally by impedance measurements in
access points to the grounding system and in local scale by either leading a current
of known frequency through the grid or by inductive methods whereby eddy
currents are created in the wires, generating anomalies that can be measured on
the surface. The report describes suggested methods for doing this and presents a
possible design for evaluating these methods through laboratory and field tests.
The report includes short chapters regarding the purpose and function of the
grounding system in substations.
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List of content
1 INTRODUCTION 7
2 GROUNDING GRID PURPOSE 8
3 GROUNDING GRID TERRAIN INVESTIGATION 9
4 GROUNDING GRID FUNCTIONAL CONTROL 12
5 INSTRUMENTS FOR LOCATING DISCONNECTION/CORROSION 17
5.1 VERY LOW FREQUENCY – 3-D VLF 17
5.2 TOTAL MAGNETIC AC FIELD MEASUREMENT 18
5.3 ELECTRIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS 19
5.4 ELECTRIC SURFACE POTENTIAL 20
5.5 INDUCTION INSTRUMENTS 20
5.5.1 GEONICS EM-61 20
5.5.2 SCHIEBEL MINE-SEEKER 23
5.6 PRESENT OR INDUCED FREQUENCY DETECTION 25
5.6.1 LEICA CABLE FINDER 26
5.7 GROUND PENETRATING RADAR - GPR 27
6 RECOMMENDED FIELD TESTS 29
6.1 GENERAL TEST PLAN 29
6.1.1 PURE ANOMALIES (STEP 1) 29
6.1.2 SURFACE LAID GRID (STEP 2) 30
6.1.3 BURIED GRID (STEP 3) 31
7 ESTIMATED COSTS 32
7.1 STEP 1 32
7.2 STEP 2 32
7.3 STEP 3 33
8 DOWN TO EARTH DELIBERATIONS 34
9 ABSTRACTS OF REFERENCED PUBLICATIONS / BIBLIOGRAPHY 37
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1 INTRODUCTION
This report is intended to suggest ways of detecting inconsistencies in
grounding grids (earthing grids).
It should also suggest field tests suitable for selecting appropriate instruments for
detection of those inconsistencies. A further task is to make an estimate of the
associated costs of such tests.
There is also a chapter regarding how the resistivity of the soil should be
determined with modern methods.
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Normally the grounding system consists of a main grounding bus and the
grounded mat. The main bus is a larger copper conductor that rings and crosses
the station, usually 4/0. The bus is usually trenched in with leads brought up in
critical locations. Rods are installed along the bus anywhere from 5 to 30 m apart
according to the calculated conductivity of the earth. They are used to reach more
conductive soil layers situated deeper. Woven between the bus conductors is the
mat. It is often constructed of smaller copper wires anywhere from #4 to #10, but
can be larger. They are cross-connected to form 3 dm to 1 m squares, all depending
on the design criteria.
The bus is principally designed to conduct anticipated fault currents to earth, while
the mat is principally designed to provide against step potential and as a shield
from currents and voltage rise injected into the earth during a fault.
The mat is usually not located as deep as the bus. The mat can be laid on
compacted soil, packed and tamped. After the cover soil is tamped, a layer of
crushed stone is laid. The stone layer can be from 0.3 to 1 m thick. The crushed
stone layer provides an insulating buffer between workers and the mat.”
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The resistivity of the ground can be measured using four electrode arrays, where
two electrodes are used for transmitting a controlled pulsed direct current and two
other electrodes are used for measuring the induced potentials. Pulses of
alternating polarities are used to remove electrode polarization effects, and
measurements are made so that background drift is filtered away.
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Figure 2. Principle for VES resistivity measurement with 4 electrode configuration (modified from Robinson
and Coruh 1988). Depth sensitivity is obtained by increasing electrode separation.
The measured apparent resistivity depends not only on the resistivity variation
with depth, but also changes in the direction perpendicular to the measurement
spread affects the data because of the three dimensional (3D) current distribution.
Thus so called 3D effects can give misleading results in complex geological
environments or if grounded infrastructure is present in the surroundings. By
measuring perpendicular or parallel 2D ERT lines the 3D character of the ground
can be revealed.
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12V DC
Figure 3. Sketch of electrode spread for 2D ERT. The survey line can be extended with so called roll-along by
moving one cable section from one end to the other and shifting the instrument one step.
3D ERT can be achieved by measuring several parallel lines, from which the data is
merged and inverted using a 3D finite element model approach. It is also possible
to measure on a grid of electrodes, but this obviously requires larger electrode
spreads and more complex equipment.
In power grid application is appears that VES using Wenner configuration is still a
widespread approach for assessing the electrical grounding properties. The VES is
usually carried out according to a laborious manual procedure described in ASTM
standard G57. This is a very inefficient way of doing a resistivity survey that gives
a small amount of information in relation to the time and cost spent, and the
results can be misleading in complex environments. It would be much more
appropriate to use modern ERT.
A limitation of the DC resistivity method, such as VES and ERT is that they depend
on sufficiently good galvanic contact between the electrodes and the ground,
which can be challenging in cases with dry coarse grained sediments or bedrock
outcrop. Watering the electrodes and applying conductive gel or bentonite mud
usually solves such problems. The method is relatively slow compared to some
electromagnetic methods like GPR (Chapter 5) because of the required galvanic
contact, but on the other hand it is more robust and works well and provides stable
data in most environments. It works in low resistivity soils like clay, where GPR
provides no results and GPR does not provide direct resistivity data. It also works
well in high resistive environments where inductive electromagnetic methods such
as TEM (Chapter 5) have poor resolution of the ground resistivity, and often
provides stable results even close to high tension power lines.
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“Fault clearance and lightning protection can severely damage a grid or mesh.
Another agent is corrosion and ironically the best grounding soils are also the most
corrosive. Resistance tests performed in the mA current range indicate the overall
capability of the grid regarding step or touch potentials, but does not indicate the
internal condition of the grid. To test grid integrity the tester must be able to
produce high current, in the order of 300A. Rather than calculating and displaying
resistance the grid tester evaluates the change in current flow. Test leads are
typically welding cables 3 to 30 m long.
By isolating the faulty current path the work of excavation and repair is markedly
reduced.
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Electromagnetic field
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Figure 6. Examples of how current could be injected into a grounding system without the use of a remote
electrode. [2 Jowett]
When a DC current of 100 A is injected between the two points of an intact grid,
most of the current will flow in the conductors of the grid with only an extremely
small portion of the current circulating in the earth. If a grid conductor is broken,
then the conductor will experience a significant increase in its earth leakage current
in the vicinity of the discontinuity.
The multiple point current injection technique is more practical, in that it provides
a global view, but less selective than the double point current injection technique.
Single discontinuities are difficult to detect even with the aid of signature curves
(undamaged state), however multiple discontinuities are more easily detected.
Yu [4] presents a novel approach using the transient electromagnetic method for
fault diagnosis of grounding grids. The induced magnetic intensity is collected by
receiver coils in the form of electromotive force. After inversion maps of ground
resistivity can be obtained. The faults due to corrosion or breaks can be accurately
located from the distribution characteristics of equivalent resistivity maps.
In the introduction are mentioned several previously applied methods for analysis
of grounding grid discontinuities as:
The paper advocates the Transient Electromagnetic Method – TEM. A typical TEM
is a transmitter –receiver system that records the secondary magnetic field due to
the induced eddy currents in the ground. The rapid transmitter current pulse turn-
off introduces the primary field impulse that creates eddy currents in the ground.
After inversion calculation of the secondary magnetic field recorded by receiver
coils, corrosion or break points of grounding grids can be detected from contour
maps of the calculated equivalent resistivity.
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Three situations are considered: the grounding grid at a depth of 0.8 m has no
faults, a single break point at the middle of a conductor and a single break cut at
the cross node of conductors. Also the presence of a 0.5 m diameter pipeline at
different depths above and under the grid was calculated, Figure 7. The
simulations were carried out using a 3-D transient simulator, a FEM package from
Ansoft. The simulated transmitter loop has a radius of 0.302 m and is excited by a
16 A current pulse of trapezoidal shape. In Chinese grounding grids iron bars 5x0.5
cm are used instead of copper wires.
The simulation results clearly indicates the presence of wire breaks with the break
at the cross point E being of largest magnitude.
The presence of the pipeline made serious disturbances in the case it was above the
grid, but had no significant influence when it was buried below the grid, Figure 8.
Figure 7. Layout of experimental plan with assumed break points B and E. [4 Yu et al]
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Figure 8. Contour map of equivalent resistivity with 17 measuring points along A(#1)-C(#17) when the
grounding grid has a) no faults, b) a break cut on conductor at B (close to point #9) and c) a break
cut at cross point E (close to point #11). No pipeline was present in this simulation. A weaker
magnetic intensity is interpreted as a higher equivalent resistivity in the inversion process. [4 Yu et
al]
Figure 9. The influence of different degrees of damage to a copper wire between point #7 and #11 (green,
black) and a break at point B (#9) on the magnetic intensity at the 3 ms sample. [4 Yu et al]
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Figure 10. Sketch of VLF field from remote transmitter and induced secondary field from conductive zone in
bedrock, with typical measured principle response above. The measured response is often
presented after applying a digital filter that transforms the inflection points to peaks, which is
easier to interpret and plot in map format.
Induction will take place in conductive structures that are aligned with the
direction of the transmitter, so that the magnetic component of the electromagnetic
field is more or less perpendicular to the conductive structure. In order to capture
all possible structure directions it is therefore essential to measure with more than
one transmitter direction. Ideally an instrument, Figure 11, should measure in a
rather wide frequency band with three perpendicular receiver coils, with
automatic recording of direction of the coils and positioning with sufficiently high
resolution. In this way all possible directions could be detected in one round of
scanning over a grid in an area of investigation.
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Figure 12. The sensor head of the total magnetic field instrument. Thin lines indicate the orientation of the
coils inside the sensor head.
Figure 13. Top of sensor head removed to show the arrangement of the three orthogonal coils.
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If a current is forced through a wire with a locally reduced cross section the electric
field surrounding the wire would increase due to the increased voltage drop over
the damaged part.
Figure 14. Pulses used in the Schiebel mine seeker of the inductive type. As can be seen pulses of about 8 us
are transmitted at about 150 us intervals, with every other of opposite polarity.
Here we will describe two induction instruments, the Geonics EM-61, which is
made for geophysical measurements of ground properties and the Schiebel mine-
seeker, which is a military instrument. The EM-61 has a data recorder while the
Schiebel in standard option only has an audible output in headphones.
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optimized for different targets and modes of operation. It is suitable for detection
of ferrous as well as non-ferrous metal.
The transmitter coil generates a primary magnetic field which induces eddy
currents in conductive objects such as metal. The eddy currents decay with time, at
rates that depend on the characteristics of the object. The eddy currents produce
secondary magnetic fields that decay accordingly, and these fields are detected by
the receiver coil(s). Measurements are made in several time windows after the
transmitted pulse has been turned off.
The instrument comprises the coils, a control unit with data storage, Figure 16 and
a backpack with batteries and the power electronics, Figure 17.
Figure 15. Geonics EM-61 TEM sensor with two different coils. The black cable is the LTH test square.
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Figures 18 and 19 illustrates the single square grid simulator put together at LTH.
It is modular and permits total breaks to be opened and segments to be replaced
with partly damaged (corroded) wires.
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Figure 18. LTH 3 x 3 m grid with a break point connection in one segment and all corners.
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Figure 20. The Schiebel AN-19 miltary mine seeker (courtesy of FOI)
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Figure 22. Schiebel AN-19 control unit. Dials for sensitivity and headphone loudness.
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Figure 24. Leica Digicat 550i Cable-finder. Magnetic field detector. Requires current in the cable to be
detected.
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Figure 25. Leica cable-finder system. Near: Digitex transmitter (induction or connection) and Distant: Digicat
receiver.
Figure 26. Leica Digitex inductive/connective transmitter for frequencies 8 kHz or 33 kHz.
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a hyperbolic shape of the echo signals, which clearly identifies the position along-
track the profile, Figure 27. It is unclear if GPR is capable of detecting damages in
wire. This is because the pulse lengths of the GPR are larger than the damages and
that a GPR profile should typically be oriented perpendicular to the wire to
provide best positioning.
Modern GPR systems may have many antennas providing a swath of parallel
profiles. LTH pioneered GPR in Sweden.
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It seems to be a good idea to perform step 1 before any decision on step 2 and 3 is
made. This is for two reasons. Step 1 will demonstrate if selected physical
principles can detect created damages and it will do that at a relatively low cost. If
the instruments are not succeeding, there is no reason to perform steps 2 and 3.
This kind of anomalies could be labeled as in vitro anomalies. Since the cable is
heavy and the diameter of the wheel would be large the arrangement would have
a quite high inertial moment. Thus it would suffice to manually start the rotation
and measure the rotational period to have high quality data regarding distance.
This would be an advantage since an electric motor would produce disturbing
magnetic and electric fields.
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Figure 28. Wheel-method to record “pure” anomalies with a fixed sensor. The grid wire is formed around the
periphery of a large wheel of non-conductive material. The wire could be laid in a plastic tube. Due
to its´ inertia the wheel (cable + spokes) does not need any motor. It will keep rotating at a given
rpm for a while after being manually spun. Diameter 2-3 m.
Before measurements are started the in situ anomalies for each candidate
instrument must be established. This is done by exactly marking the intended
position of the surface laid grid before it is laid out.
In this step primarily the Leica cable finder or similar is applied in passive and
active mode to check its’ capacity to correctly locate the surface laid wires. The
passive mode of the cable finder requires the wires to be carrying an AC current
emanating from an external source, e.g. the 50 Hz. The active mode of the
instrument is using an associated current source to generate a frequency of 8 or 33
kHz which is connected to the grid wires.
Corrosion has the effect of reducing the cross section of the grid wires. This means
that the resistivity locally increases. Since the same current must flow through the
damaged part as in the adjacent parts of the wire due to Kirchhoff’s law for a
simple circuit, the potential fall will have to be larger over the corroded part. This
may result in a stronger electric field over the corroded part making a case for
electric field measurements. Corrosion will reduce the induced current from a TEM
instrument (induction) making a case for such measurements.
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A break in a wire will produce larger currents in the soil (Dawalibi [3]) which may
be detected by surface potential measurements, electromagnetic or inductive
methods.
The surface of the ground must be such that it does not reveal where the grid wires
have been buried.
In this step primarily the Leica cable finder is applied in passive and active mode.
The passive mode requires the wires to be carrying a current emanating from an
external process, e.g. 50 Hz AC. The active mode of the instrument use an
instrument associated current source to generate a frequency of 8 or 13 kHz which
is connected to the grid wires. When the location is completed the wires´ positions
should be marked on the surface with spray paint.
All available instruments are tested along the previously located grid segments.
Possibly the inductive methods like the EM-61 is powerful enough to sense
anomalies even if the sensor coils are not just above the inconsistencies of the
wires.
All available instruments are tested along the previously located grid segments.
Possibly the inductive methods like the EM-61 is powerful enough to sense
anomalies even if the sensor coils are not just above the inconsistencies of the
wires.
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7 ESTIMATED COSTS
7.1 STEP 1
This is the most significant test suggested, although it is not a realistic simulation
of the conditions for a wire buried in soil. What is not possible to simulate is
surface potentials around a break in a wire. But a break and many levels of
corrosion can be simulated. The instruments would be positioned at different
distances from the cable, to map their area of influence.
The wheel method is not suitable for evaluating cable seekers, since these are
locating the cable by moving the seeker in a line perpendicular to the cable
direction. For the cable seeker a test-rig with a horizontally moving vertical cable
carrying current is envisaged. It could be like a vertical rectangle rotating around a
center post passing the stationary cable finder instrument that would be positioned
at different distances from the cable, to map its´ area of influence. In natural terrain
the fields would be attenuated in accordance with the conductivity of the soil. This
attenuation is possible to calculate theoretically from resistivity values.
The costs arise from building the intended wheel and performing the tests. The
task is potentially suitable for a M. Sc. project, since it can be launched with quite
short instructions. This approach depends on the availability of such students.
The procedure would be to have a fixture for the sensors that would allow for
different distances between the sensor and the rotating cable. For the
electromagnetic instruments it would also be of interest to vary the current in the
wire.
The construction of the test rigs would probably cost around 50 kSEK. For each
tested instrument it is estimated that the cost would be 35 kSEK including report.
Rental costs are not included in this estimate. It is standard that geophysical
equipment is rented at 5% of the instrument cost per week. Since we have all
instruments and some others like GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) it may be an
alternative to buy a GEONICS EM-61. It would then be an upgrade compared to
the one illustrating the figures in this report. The cost of a modern GEONICS EM-
61 MkII is 37.000 USD. The daily rental cost is 144 Euro/day
7.2 STEP 2
This is the easiest test to perform. But it would be separated in time from the step 1
measurements, because of the necessary evaluation period after step 1. It is
suggested that several frames of mechanically connected wire segments, like the
one shown in the EM-61 pictures, is used. Segments with different standardized
damages are constructed. This segment could be covered by plastic tubes in a
second test on the surface laid grid. The exercise would accustom operators to
quantify the outputs of their instruments. For silent sensors that would be
pointless.
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Building wire frames is estimated at 25 kkr and reporting for each instrument at
35 kkr.
7.3 STEP 3
This is the most expensive test to perform. Since it requires the engagement of
construction companies it lies beyond our capacity to estimate the costs. A
complication requiring afterthought is the availability of a suitable site. Ideally this
site should be possible to establish as a permanent test site also for other problems
that may require evaluation of methods and training of personnel.
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Remembering that:
The stone is not there for architectural reasons. The crushed stone bed provides an
insulating buffer between workers and the mat. The stone layers resistance is
sometimes 3000 Ohms/m or more between the worker and the mat. Voltage
without current, even at high levels, is not usually deadly. The stations ground
grid is practically of zero resistance while you are more than 4000 ohms across
your body and the stone layer to the mat.” [1 Vaughn].
There is thus always a resistance between a person’s hand and the ground under
the mat of at least 4000 Ohms. That resistance will reduce the current to unlethal
levels also in single hand contact with high voltages. Hand to hand currents should
be taken care of through the installation´s grounding bars in contact with the bus.
For this reason a fault in the mat (grounding grid) will not compromise the
function of the mat unless the fault has a considerable extension.
In our opinion there is thus no reason to proceed to an extensive grounding grid survey
unless measurements at the available grounding posts show that something may be wrong,
see e.g. [2 Jowett] for how this is done.
It has not escaped our notice that the mat is like a plate in a condenser stretched by
the bus. The other plate would be the first conductive soil layer or the groundwater
table. Between these “plates” there should be a measurable capacitance. The
capacitance C of a plate condenser with area A and distance between plates d is
C=εA/d
if the material between plates has a dielectric constant ε. Thus any significant
reduction in the area A should result in a reduction in the capacitance C. A complication is
of course that the original capacitance is unknown.
The contact with the other plate, a conducting soil layer or the groundwater table,
could be made by inserting an isolated rod, with a tip electrode, to the desired
depth. This kind of measurement is labeled mis a la masse in geophysics. This
expression is French and means approximately “brought to protective ground”.
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Figure 29. Mise a la masse symbols. Approximate meaning is protective ground (skyddsjord).
This is routinely made in the geophysical method Induced Polarization – IP, which
LTH happens to have a great deal of knowledge in (e.g. Dahlin and Leroux 2012).
Z = 1 / jωC
It makes the voltage lag the current by 90 degrees. If there is also a resistive
component (in phase with the current), the resultant impedance will be according
to Figure 30.
Figure 30. The impedance Z resulting from combined resistive and capacitive impedances. [Wikipedia].
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The difficulty of this method is of course that a baseline value is needed before you
can make any statement on the measured value of the capacitance. This could
however be obtained by making regular measurements or even better, making
continuous measurements. That would also take care of seasonal effects due to
variations in ground moisture and ground water level. The latter could be
automatically measured in the isolated rod, if this is made like a tube.
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[1] ** Vaughn, Jim, CUSP, January-February 2009, “What you need to know
about Substations”,
http://incident-prevention.com/ip-articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-
substations
The ground system has three purposes all of equal importance: conduct faults to
earth, limit voltage rise on the station mat and eliminate step and touch potentials.
There are two components to the stations grounding system made up of the main
grounding bus and the grounded mat. The main bus is a larger copper conductor,
usually 4/0, that rings and crosses the station. The bus is usually trenched in with
leads brought up in critical locations. Rods are installed along the bus anywhere
from 5 to 30 m apart according to the calculated conductivity of the earth. Woven
between the bus is the mat. They are often constructed of smaller copper wires
anywhere from #4 to #10, but can be larger. They are cross connected to form 3 dm
to 1 m squares, all depending on the design criteria. Mats and buss are usually
exothermically welded. If wires are brazed heat development in prolonged faults
can melt the connections.
Voltage without current, even at high levels, is not usually deadly. The stations
ground grid is practically of zero resistance while you are more than 4000 ohms
across your body and the stone layer to the mat. Just like overhead EPZ, the mat
and resistance of your body took the voltage but minimized the current to a
survivable level. Still rubber gloves are recommended.
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[2] *** Jowett, Jeff, “Ground Grid Integrity”, MEGGER, NETA WORLD Fall
2008, www.netaworld.org
Fault clearance and lightning protection can severely damage a grid or mesh.
Another agent is corrosion and ironically the best grounding soils are also the most
corrosive. Resistance tests performed in the mA current range indicate the overall
capability of the grid regarding step or touch potentials, but does not indicate the
internal condition of the grid. To test grid integrity the tester must be able to
produce high current, in the order of 300 A. Rather than calculating and displaying
resistance the grid tester evaluates the change in current flow. Test leads are
typically welding cable in 3 to 30 m lengths.
By isolating the faulty current path the work of excavation and repair is markedly
reduced.
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[3] *** DAWALIBI, F., “Electromagnetic fields generated by overhead and buried
short conductors Part 2 – Ground Networks, IEEE Transactions on power
Delivery, Vol PWRD-1, No.4, October 1986.
The classical definition of the mutual impedance between two conductors is the
ratio of the voltage in one conductor to the current flowing in the other conductor,
but this definition assumes the current to be constant, which is unlikely for buried
bare conductors.
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Two methods to solve this problem are discussed: one method based exclusively
on electromagnetic field theory and secondly a hybrid method based both on
electromagnetic field theory and electric circuit concepts. The first method results
in computational difficulties caused by a 2n x 2n matrix to be solved. The hybrid
method introduces mutual impedances between conductor segments, but by
neglecting inductive components the matrix size is reduced to n x n.
This model was applied to a grounding grid with and without imperfections and
different effects on the ground potentials and the magnetic field were studied. It
appears reasonable to expect that by a judicious choice of the current magnitude
and the injection nodes used, the damaged conductor detection capability can be
enhanced.
Examples of how current could be injected into a grounding grid without a remote electrode. [3 Dawalibi]
When a DC current of 100 A is injected between the two points of an intact grid,
most of the current will flow in the conductors of the grid with only an extremely
small portion of the current circulating in the earth. If a grid conductor is broken,
then the conductor will experience a significant increase in its earth leakage current
in the vicinity of the discontinuity.
The multiple point current injection technique is more practical, in that it provides
a global view, but less selective than the double point current injection technique.
Single discontinuities are difficult to detect even with the aid of signature curves
(undamaged state), however multiple discontinuities are more easily detected.
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Magnetic profile over single discontinuity located at 27 m in the upper figure. Double injection. [3 Dawalibi]
[4] ***Yu, C., Fu, Z., Wang, Q., Tai, H., M., Qin, S., ”A Novel Method for Fault
Diagnosis of Grounding Grids”, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications,
Vol. 51, NO. 6, November/December 2015.
This paper presents a novel approach using the transient electromagnetic method
for fault diagnosis of grounding grids. The induced magnetic intensity is collected
by receiver coils in the form of electromotive force. After inversion maps of ground
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resistivity can be obtained. The faults due to corrosion or breaks can be accurately
located from the distribution characteristics of equivalent resistivity maps.
In the introduction are mentioned several previously applied methods for analysis
of grounding grid discontinuities as:
The paper advocates the Transient Electromagnetic Method – TEM. A typical TEM
is a transmitter –receiver system that records the secondary magnetic field due to
the induced eddy currents in the ground. The rapid transmitter current pulse turn-
off introduces the primary field impulse that creates eddy currents in the ground.
After inversion calculation of the secondary magnetic field recorded by receiver
coils, corrosion or break points of grounding grids can be detected from contour
maps of the calculated equivalent resistivity.
Three situations are considered: the grounding grid at a depth of 0.8 m has no
faults, a single break point at the middle of a conductor and a single break cut at
the cross node of conductors. Also the presence of a 0.5 m diameter pipeline at
different depths above and under the grid was calculated. The simulations were
carried out using a 3-D transient simulator, a FEM package from Ansoft. The
simulated transmitter loop has a radius of 0.302 m and is excited by a 16 A current
pulse of trapezoidal shape. In Chinese grounding grids iron bars 5x0.5 cm are used
instead of copper wires.
The simulation results clearly indicates the presence of wire breaks with the break
at the cross point E being of largest magnitude.
The presence of the pipeline made serious disturbances in the case it was above the
grid, but had no significant influence when it was buried below the grid.
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Contour map of equivalent resistivity with 17 measuring points along A(1)-C(17) when the grounding grid has
a) no faults, b) a break cut on conductor at B (close to point 9) and c) a break cut at cross point E (close to point
11). No pipeline was present in this simulation. A weaker magnetic intensity is interpreted as a higher
equivalent resistivity in the inversion process. [4 Yu et al]
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The influence of different degrees of damage to a copper wire between point 7 and 11 (green, black) and a
break at point B (9) on the magnetic intensity at the 3 ms sample. [4 Yu et al]
[5] **Zhang, B., Zhao, Z., Cui, X. and Li, L., “Diagnosis of breaks in Substations
Grounding Grid by Using the Electromagnetic Method”, IEEE Transactions on
Magnetics, Vol 38, NO. 2, March 2002.
The expected impedances are calculated by a numeric method. These values are
compared to measured values and large differences are an indication of
deficiencies in the grounding grid.
Earth resistivity tests with values under 10000 Ocm generally indicate that
corrosion is in process. Current-to-ground in line anchors in excess of 5 mA
indicate failure will occur. Grid to soil voltages of less than -0.75 V referred to a
copper-copper sulfate half-cell represents destruction of tin and zinc coatings from
the buried ground bus and line anchors.
[6] **Mi, Z., Jianguo, W., Yang, L., Nianwen, X., Zhen, S., Junjie, C., Chunhua, F.,
“Causes, Forms and Remedies of Substation Grounding Grid Corrosion”, 2008
International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Application,
Chongqing, China, November 9-13, 2008
Paper describes the basic corrosion theory and discusses factors affecting the
corrosion rate such as soil resistivity, pH value, water content, soluble salts
content. The most common methods for protection are metallic coating, cathodic
protection and corrosion allowance in conductor cross section area.
[7] **Lawson, V., “Problems and Detection of Line Anchor and Substation
Ground Grid Corrosion”, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 24,
NO. 1, January/February
To estimate the rate of grounding grid corrosion four tests are suggested 1) earth
resistivity, 2) guy current, 3) grid-to-earth potential and 4) polarizing current.
Earth resistivity tests with values under 10000 Ocm generally indicate that
corrosion is in process. Current-to-ground in line anchors in excess of 5 mA
indicate failure will occur. Grid to soil voltages of less than -0.75 V referred to a
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GROUNDING GRID INTEGRITY
copper-copper sulfate half-cell represents destruction of tin and zinc coatings from
the buried ground bus and line anchors.
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GROUNDING GRID INTEGRITY
Papers 8-11 below describes procedures to verify that the grounding grid works as
intended. The control parameter is the impedance at the grounding point. This is
measured with a remote current electrode and a remote potential electrode.
[11] ELECTRA, “Station Earthing. Safety and Interference Aspects”, Final report
of task force 36.04.01
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[12] Xuan Wu, Vinod Simha, Ronald J. Wellman, ”Optimal Ground Grid Design
for Large EHV Substations with Auto-Transformer, IEEE 2015.
[15] Watson J., D. and Crick, F., H., C., “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids”,
Nature, April 25, pp737-738, 1953
Textbooks on Geophysics
Robinson, E.S. and Coruh, C. (1988) Basic Exploration Geophysics, Wiley, New
York, 562p.
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GROUNDING GRID INTEGRITY
This report is a pre-study before a systematic study of methods suitable to
locate damage in grounding grids is made.
The report includes short chapters regarding the purpose and function of the
grounding system in substations and how to evaluate the resistivity of the
ground layers.