Fast and Accurate Transient Analysis of Large Grounding Systems in Multilayer Soil

One of the most accurate approaches to the lightning-related transient analysis of grounding systems in layered soil is based on the method of moments solution of the integral form of the Maxwell equations. The practical application of this rigorous model to large systems is hindered by a great amount of computer time required for the numerical integration of oscillatory and slowly convergent Sommerfeld integrals (SI). As a result, approximate methods that avoid the solution of SI, e.g., image theory-based methods, are often used for computation of the response of large grounding systems. In this article, we extend the application of the rigorous model for large grounding systems in multilayered soil by applying a procedure that minimizes the number of direct computations of the SI using interpolation over a grid of a small number of sample points. We implement a three-dimensional interpolation scheme that adapts to the problem to minimize the interpolation grid, maintaining the accuracy of the rigorous approach. The developed model is applied for the analysis of transient voltages that might couple to secondary cables and disrupt the operation of connected equipment in case of lightning. The analysis shows that there are cases when the image theory-based models might underestimate the possibly harmful transient voltages.