A New Method for Grounding Resistance Measurement Based on the Drained Net Charge

This paper presents a new method for measuring grounding resistances, which is based on the measured net charge drained by the grounding system when excited by an impulse generator. The circuit property used by the method is briefly described, alongside with the method itself. An advantage of this method with respect to the traditional ones is that it is not affected by the self and mutual reactances present in the grounding system and in the measuring wires. Moreover, the proposed method does not require the measurement of surface potentials, which are prone to interference due to soil non-homogeneities, buried conductive bodies, and stray currents. This paper presents experimental results from the method using lumped components and using actual grounding systems. The results show that the method provides consistent and accurate values of grounding resistances.