1
Soil Ionization in Different Types of Grounding
Grids Simulated by FDTD Method
Thaís L. T. dos Santos, Rodrigo M. S. de Oliveira, Carlos Leônidas da S. S. Sobrinho, Member, IEEE
and José F. Almeida
Abstract — The main goal of this work is to analyze the soil
ionization effects in different types of grounding grids. The
analysis was performed by implementing a software based on the
FDTD method, for modeling the non-linear behavior of the
ground due the application of high intensity lightning currents.
Step voltages on the soil surface were calculated from the border
of the grounding grid to a point 1 m away from it. The ionization
influence is determined by comparing the results to data obtained
by modeling linear ground. The obtained results are physically
consistent.
Keywords — Soil Ionization, FDTD method, step voltage,
grounding grids.
I. INTRODUCTION
E lectromagnetics transients in grounding systems caused by
high power lightning currents cause several classes of
problems such as: high values of step and touch voltages on
the surface of the earth, treating people and animals, and
problems of electromagnetic compatibility, which can be
associated to damages of electrical equipment. This way, the
study of transients plays a fundamental role in the design of
lighting protection systems. Its geometry and dimensions are
important because these systems must have an appropriate
configuration to reduce the associated consequences [1].
Many works have been published with descriptions of
different methodologies for analyzing the transient behavior of
grounding systems [1-6], based on the following methods:
Transmission Lines (TLM), the Finite Elements (FEM), the
Method of Moments (MoM) and finally the Finite Differences
Methods in Time Domain method (FDTD). The main results
presented in these articles are related to transient currents and
step and touch potentials, considering typical grounding grids.
The phenomenon of soil ionization is considered in some of
them.
The main goal of this paper is to analyze the soil ionization
effects in different types of ground grids by the application of
lightning currents, by using the FDTD method. The work aims
Manuscript received July 6, 2009. This work was supported by CNPq,
Eletronorte and LANE/UFPA.
Thaís L. T. dos Santos, Rodrigo M. S. de Oliveira and Carlos Leônidas da
S. S. Sobrinho are with the Eletrical and Computational Engineering
Department. Federal University of Pará. Belém, Pará, Brazil (e-mail:
thais@lane.ufpa.br; rodrigo@lane.ufpa.br; leonidas@ufpa.br).
José F. Almeida is with the Cyber Space Institute. Federal Rural University
of Amazon. Belém, PA, Brazil (e-mail: felipe.almeida@ufra.edu.br).
to demonstrate that soil regions may be ionized or not,
depending on the intensity of the local electric field related to
the critical electric field value associated to the medium. In
this study, the Maxwell’s equations are solved numerically,
based on the Yee’s method [7], in such way to consider
correctly the nonlinear behavior of grounding grids during the
process of soil ionization and deionization [1]. For truncation
of the analysis region, the Uniaxial Perfectly Matched
Layers (UPML) technique was used [8].
Two types of grounding grids were considered: a) the
conventional horizontal grid and b) the "umbrella" grid. The
“umbrella” grid is a tridimensional wire structure designed to
direct the current flow inward the ground, reducing the
voltages on the soil surface. Moreover, for the horizontal
grid, discontinuities (gaps) were introduced in order to analyze
their effects on the transient waveforms. The results obtained
by computational simulations were compared with the theory
presented in the literature [3,5]. The simulations were
performed with the software LANE SAGS (Synthesis and
Analysis of Grounding Systems) [9], developed at the
Laboratory of Numerical Analysis on Electromagnetism
(LANE) at the Federal University of Para (UFPA), in Brazil.
The work is organized as follows: I) Introduction; II) Soil
Ionization; III) The FDTD Method; IV) Results; V)
Conclusions.
II. SOIL IONIZATION
Experimental and theoretical studies show that, when high-
amplitude currents are injected in the soil through earth
electrodes, the electric field exceeds the critical electric field
Ec in the region around the grounding system. It causes a
nonlinear behavior of the soil conductivity. This phenomenon
is called ionization. A reverse process, called soil deionization,
starts when the current begins to decrease, in such way the
stationary value (original) of soil conductivity is restored [1].
The soil characteristics related to the phenomena of ionization
and deionization are described in [10]. It’s important to
observe that the process of soil ionization helps to reduce the
relation Voltage/Current of the grounding system.
The ionized region of the soil, in a given instant, is the
volume in which the amplitude of the electric field exceeds Ec
for all of its points. This region extends, for a single electrode,
from its proximities to the points in which the field is smaller
than the critical electric field Ec at the considered instant. If
the shape of the electrode and soil characteristics change, the

phenomenon of ionization changes only geometrically, but the
physical process is identical [6].
The ionization models available in the literature [2-6] are
based on the assumption that the ionized regions of the soil
around the earth electrodes are well-shaped (uniform and
previously known). Since it is difficult to know exactly the
shape of these regions, different shapes have been adopted
based on different models of the physical phenomenon that
describe the processes of soil ionization and deionization.
However, it means that these models are somewhat distant
from the actual mechanism of ionization. The usage of a
function of space-time variable soil resistivity seems to be
closest to the physical phenomenon than the purely geometric
approach. In this work, the FDTD method is applied to solve
the Maxwell’s equations, so that the instantaneous geometries
of ionized regions are determined automatically from the
values of the electric field for each step of time, such as
proposed by [1].
III. THE FDTD METHOD
The FDTD method was initially proposed by Yee [7] in
1966. In 1975, A. Taflove presented the stability condition for
the Yee’s method [11]. In the FDTD method, the components
of electric and magnetic fields are distributed in space in such
way to satisfy the curl operator present in Maxwell’s equations
(magnetic field components circulates around electric field
components and vice-versa). Thus, the field components
define electrically small closed volumes in the space called the
Yee’s cells. A set of Yee’s cells represents the spatial region
under interest. The Yee’s cell has dimensions Δx, Δy and Δz at
the discrete spatial address (i,j,k) (i, j and k are integer indexes
related to x, y and z).
In this cell, the electric field components are positioned in
the center of its edges and the magnetic field components are
normally positioned in the center of its faces. The field
components are calculated by using discrete versions of the
corresponding scalar equation [11]. For the treatment of open
problems, however, it is necessary to apply a technique
sufficiently accurate to truncate the computational domain in
analysis because of the absence of computer systems of
infinite capacity [12-15]. The usage of absorbing regions must
be efficient in such way to minimize unrealistic wave
reflexions which can disturb the analysis environment. The
technique employed here is called UPML (Uniaxial Perfectly
Matched Layers) [8]. The UPML formulation consists on
modeling an anisotropic region composed by layers evolving
the analysis region, such as shown by Fig. 1. The UPML
region is terminated by perfectly conducting planes.
Each layer contains an attenuation parameter σα, simulating
the propagation of waves to the infinity. Such function σα
increases in the directions pointing outward the computational
domain. This method is widely used due to its high absorption
efficiency (over 50 dB), independently of the characteristics of
propagation of the waves, such as direction, polarization and
frequency. The technique simulates a virtual anechoic
chamber.
In this work, cylindrical conductors were modeled by using
2
the thin wire technique described in [16]. Thus, it became
possible to use a coarse discretization grid, which contributes
for reducing the processing time and the memory space
required.
ABSORBING REGION (UPML)
Analysis Region
(UPML)
(UPML)
Grounding Grid
(UPML)
Fig. 1. UPML for truncation of FDTD method.
For all simulations presented in this work, ten layers are
used to compose the UPML region and the grounding grids
were positioned in a minimum distance of 30 cells of the
internal UPML walls. For the numerical scheme be stable, the
Courant condition is used to determinate the time step . This
condition is expressed by
(1)
in which C is the speed of light in vacuum. This equation
establishes a dependence relationship between the cell
dimensions and the time increment. Thus, it avoids the
numerical instability. It is important to observe that the spatial
increments must be limited to one tenth of the smallest
propagating wavelength in order to reduce effects of
numerical dispersion.
In order to overcome the difficulty of modeling the ionized
region, it is considered that a space-time variable resistivity
approach can be efficiently employed together with an FDTD
numerical scheme based on numerical solution of the
Maxwell’s equations.
A. FDTD Method and Soil Ionization
In the computer program developed to execute the
simulations, the phenomenon of soil ionization was
implemented as described in [1]. When the electric field E in
the FDTD grid is higher than the critical electric field Ec for a
given point, the ionization starts for that point. The resistivity
is expressed as a time function for a given point i in space as
follows:
(2)
where i is the resistivity for point i, 0 is the resistivity before
ionization, 1 is the ionization time constant [1] and ti1 is the
instant when the ionization starts for point i. Similarly, during
the process of deionization, the following equation for time
variable resistivity is adopted:
(3)
where m is the minimal value reached by soil resistivity
during the process of ionization, i2 is the deionization time
 3

constant, E is the actual intensity of the electric field and ti2 is These voltages were compared as the characteristics of the
the instant when the soil deionization starts, for the point i. grid were modified, by modeling both ionized and non-ionized
The behavior described by (2) and (3), for the soil soils. The point where the step voltage was measured for each
resistivity, is independent of the shape of the electrodes. It grid was the center of the border parallel to the y axis, as
depends only on the instantaneous electric field E and the shown in Fig. 2.
parameters 0, 1, 2, Ec and of the instants ti1 and ti2. These
parameters are related to the type of soil that it is to be
represented. The approach described by (2) and (3)
implemented into the FDTD method makes it viable to
simulate different soils and different geometries, as shown in
the following section.

IV. SIMULATION PARAMETERS

The simulations were done by using the software LANE /
SAGS [9]. In this software, the Yee’s algorithm [7] was
implemented to simulate a nonlinear lossy medium. For
truncation of the analysis region, the UPML technique was
used [8], as previously described.
Given that the problems treated here involve large electrical
dimensions, the code was executed in a parallel processing
environment. This environment is composed by a Beowulf
cluster which has four computers, each one with four Intel
Xeon processors of 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and the operating
system Slamd64 Linux 11.0. The average time for each
simulation is 6 hours.
For all simulations performed in the software LANE SAGS
[9], the computational domain under analysis is discretized
into cells with dimensions 0.5 m × 0.5m × 0.5m. The analysis
domain has the following dimensions: x-direction: 80 m (160
cells); y-direction: 70 m (140 cells) ; z-direction: 40 m (80
cells).
The soil is initially considered homogeneous, with 41 cells
in depth, including the UPML, which is equivalent to a soil
with infinite depth. The relative permittivity and relative
permeability are r = 50 and r = 1, respectively. The initial
soil conductivity is = 1/ 0 = 0.002 S/m.
The radiuses of the electrodes (metal rods) that compose the
horizontal grid (Fig. 3) are 5 mm and the "umbrella" (Fig. 6)
grid are set to 10 mm. The electric discharge channel is
inserted into the geometric center of each grid and has radius
of 10 mm. It penetrates the UPML [17] block (with matched
impedances), which is equivalent to an infinitely long channel.
The excitation source represents the current waveform of an
atmospheric pulse with peak equal to 200 kA (1/50 μs double-
exponential waveform).
For all grids, two simulations were performed. One
considering the non-ionized soil and other considering the soil
ionization, with the following parameters: ionization time
constant: 3.5 s; deionization time constant: 4.5 s; critical
electric field: 1.1 kV/cm.
Fig. 2. Integration line of the electric field used to obtain the step voltage (soil
surface, from A to B).
A. Results for horizontal grid
In Fig. 3, it is shown the top view (x-y plane), of the
modifications promoted in the horizontal grid (Fig. 3a), which
has dimensions of 30 m × 30 m and it is 0.5 m buried in the
soil (one cell). This grid was analyzed in its original form (Fig.
3a) and three variations (grids 02, 03 and 04), which are
shown in Figs. 3b, 3c and 3d, respectively.
The modifications of the horizontal grid were done by
adding 3-meters-long vertical electrodes to the structure of
Fig. 3a, added to the borders of the original structure. These
electrodes are represented by circles in Figs. 3b-3d. The
modifications are described as follows: grid 02 (04 added
vertical electrodes, one in each corner of the grid – Fig. 3b),
grid 03 (08 added vertical electrodes, one on each node
present in the borders of the grid – Fig. 3c); grid 04 (16 added
vertical electrodes – Fig. 3d). Fig. 4 presents the values
obtained for the step voltage (in kV) from point A to point B
(Fig. 2), as functions of time. The simulations were performed
by considering both soil models (ionized and non-ionized
media).
In Fig. 4, it can be seen that the more vertical electrodes are
added in the grounding grid, the more step voltage between
the points A and B decreases. It can be explained by the fact
of the current has more paths to flow inward the soil. The
phenomenon of ionization contributes to the reduction of the
step voltages. This reduction is shown by Table I, considering
the maximum step voltages (from 0 to 30 µs).

V. RESULTS
In this work, the step voltages were obtained for various
grids configurations. The electric field was integrated from the
border of the grounding grid (point A in Fig. 2) to a point Fig. 3. The horizontal grid (a) original; (b) with 04 vertical electrodes; (c)
located 1 m away from it (point B), on the ground surface. with 08 vertical electrodes and (d) with 16 vertical electrodes.
 4

"umbrella" grid (Fig. 6) is shown in Fig. 8. In this figure, the

results are presented for t = 5 μs. As it has occurred for the
previous case, the potential reaches higher levels, over the
conductors, when the ionization is not considered.
A 1m B

Fig. 4. Step voltages obtained for the horizontal grids illustrated by Fig. 3 Fig. 6. The “umbrella” grid and the integration path of the electric field used
to perform the calculation of the step voltage (soil surface, from A to B).
TABLE I
MAXIMUM VALUES OF STEP VOLTAGE FOR THE HORIZONTAL GRID
Non-ionized Ionized Soil
Grid Reduction (%)
Soil (kV) (kV)
Grid 01 667.215 481.625 27.816
Grid 02 613.785 447.719 27.056
Grid 03 510.829 370.871 27.398
Grid 04 443.868 330.507 25.539
The potential distributions on the ground surface, for the
situations considered in Fig. 3, are shown by Fig. 5. In this
figure, the results are presented for t = 5 μs. It is important to
observe that the large difference between the presented results
lies in the fact that the potential reaches higher levels, along
the conductors, when the ionization is not considered. It can
Fig. 7. Step voltages obtained for the “umbrella” grid illustrated by Fig. 6.
be observed in Fig. 5 that the potential profiles for ionized on
non-ionized cases are similar, depending strongly on the
geometrical configuration of the grid (for t = 5 s).

B. Results for “umbrella” grid

For analysis of this grid, represented by Fig. 6, the value of
the step voltage was calculated by integrating the electric field
from point A to point B, which are on the soil surface.
In Fig. 7, the values of step voltage are shown, considering
the soil ionization (squares) and not considering it (circles).
Similarly, the potential distribution on the ground surface is
shown by Fig. 8. In Fig. 7, the irregularities in the step voltage
are due to the geometry of the grid.
Fig. 5. Potential distribution profile on the ground surface for the variations
of the horizontal grid (t = 5 s).
The potential distribution on the ground surface for the
Fig. 8. Potential distribution profile on the ground surface for the variations
of “umbrella” grid (t = 5 s).
C. Results for horizontal grid with gaps
In this case, the presence of disconnected electrodes is
considered in the grounding grid shown in Fig. 3a. In Fig. 9,
the proposed alterations are illustrated. Thus, a comparative
study of results obtained for the step voltage for the original
grid is performed, considering the non-ionized and ionized
soils. In this case, the values obtained for the step voltage are
shown by Fig. 10, measured from the border of the grid to a
point at 1 meter from it, on the soil surface.
The same types of defects, shown in Fig. 9a-d, are then
made in Figs. 3b, 3c and 3d. The results for the step voltage
are shown in Figs. 11-13, respectively, considering the
maximum step voltages (from 0 to 2 s).
It can be observed that when there are gaps in the grid,
the value of the step voltage suffer an oscillation and start to
decrease. The more the grid has disconnected electrodes, the
 5

greater is the amplitude of the oscillation of the step voltage. TABLE III
MAXIMUM VALUES OF STEP VOLTAGE FOR THE HORIZONTAL GRID (02 GAPS)
However, along the time, it reaches lower values because the
gaps do not make the current drain with higher intensity to the Non-ionized Ionized Soil
Grid Reduction (%)
Soil (kV) (kV)
electrode in the border of the grid. As in previous cases, when
Grid 01 354.687 303.748 14.362
the soil is ionized, the values of step voltage are lower. The Grid 02 341.434 291.696 14.567
reduction is shown by (see Tables II, III, IV and V). Grid 03 372.717 324.357 12.975
Grid 04 364.733 318.229 12.750

Fig. 12. Step voltages obtained for the horizontal grid with three gaps.

Fig. 9. Horizontal grid and the inclusion of gaps. TABLE IV

MAXIMUM VALUES OF STEP VOLTAGE FOR THE HORIZONTAL GRID (03 GAPS)
Non-ionized Ionized Soil
Grid Reduction (%)
Soil (kV) (kV)
Grid 01 384.393 319.476 16.888
Grid 02 369.369 306.984 16.890
Grid 03 403.320 342.322 15.124
Grid 04 393.706 335.412 14.806

Fig. 10. Step voltages obtained for the horizontal grid with one gap.

Fig. 13. Step voltages obtained for the horizontal grid with four gaps.

TABLE V
MAXIMUM VALUES OF STEP VOLTAGE FOR THE HORIZONTAL GRID (04 GAPS)
Non-ionized Ionized Soil
Grid Reduction (%)
Soil (kV) (kV)
Grid 01 398.985 325.092 18.520
Grid 02 387.893 316.065 18.517
Grid 03 438.770 361.867 17.527
Grid 04 433.499 357.734 17.478
Fig. 11. Step voltages obtained for the horizontal grid with two gaps.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
TABLE II
MAXIMUM VALUES OF STEP VOLTAGE FOR THE HORIZONTAL GRID (01 GAP) These results show that the process of soil ionization
Non-ionized Ionized Soil
contributes to the reduction of the potentials of a grounding
Grid Reduction (%) system on the ground surface. It is value for an atmospheric
Soil (kV) (kV)
Grid 01 340.933 306.283 10.163 pulse with peak equal to 200 kA. It can be observed, therefore,
Grid 02 324.626 283.594 12.640 in the simulations results that for a given grounding structure
Grid 03 345.462 306.622 11.243
Grid 04 335.680 298.991 10.930
buried in ionized soil, when compared to the same grid in non-
ionized soil, that there is a considerable reduction of the step

voltage. When the geometry of the grid is changed by
inserting more electrodes, the value of the voltages decreases
slightly. Adding gaps in the grid, the value decreases with a
greater difference. In the case of a curved grid, to decrease the
voltage step is considerably larger. It is worth to mention that
for ionized soils, the potential distribution profile, on ground
surface, strongly depends on the geometrical configuration of
the grid.
APPENDIX
The ionization model adopted in this work has been
validated by comparing the simulation results to the data
reported in [1].
In [1], a single rod with length of 0.61 m embedded in
homogeneous soil (ρ0 = 50 Ωm; εr = 8; μ = μ0) has been
considered. The rod is directly fed by an ideal surge current
generator. The waveform of the current generator has peak of
3.5 kA and is a 5/16.5 μs double-exponential waveform. Four
auxiliary rods are used in order to build the current return path
in the soil.
The electrical strength is set to 1.1 kV/cm and time
constants are 1 = 2.0 μs and i2 = 4.5 μs. The potential to
remote ground of the input section of the rod has been
computed in each plane perpendicular to the axis of the rod by
handling the line integral of the y-component of the electric
field by a trapezoidal rule. In Fig. 14, the time profiles of the
potential to remote ground of the rod with and without
considering the soil ionization model, are shown.
Fig. 14. Voltages obtained by reproducing the experiment described in [1].
These profiles are identical to the exact profiles reported in
[1]. It validates the implementation of the ionization model in
the software LANE / SAGS used to perform the simulations of
this work.
Fig. 15. Step voltages obtained for the grid illustrated by Fig. 3d without and
with one gap (maximum simulated time: t = 60 µs).
As it is well known, when the deionization process is
concluded, the original ground conductivity is restored,
6
promoting convergence of the time responses of grounding
grids as the injected current decreases. To show this
convergence process, the step voltages for the horizontal grid
04 (Fig. 3d) and for this same grid with a gap (similarly to Fig.
9a) were calculated up to 60 s and they are shown by Fig. 15.
This was performed due the fact that, as it could be observed
in the results shown in Section V, long simulation time is
required to stabilize the step voltage values (60μs - 80μs; 12
hours of computer simulation). This physical consistence is
then illustrated by these two cases (Fig. 15).
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