An electromagnetic model for transients in grounding systems

The development and application of a computer model for analyzing the transient performance of grounding systems based on electromagnetic field theory is described. The use of a combination of numerical integration techniques, method of moments, adaptive interpolation, and fast Fourier transform constitutes the basis for the computation of various physical quantities such as the electric fields in the ground, longitudinal and leakage currents in the ground conductors, and ground impedances. It is shown that the analysis of conductors energized by current waves can require computations at frequencies higher than the significant frequencies in the spectrum of the excitation signal, while simpler models may fail to predict accurately the transient performance. The main limitation of the computer model is the time required for the analysis of large or complex grounding systems.<>