TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF AN EARTHING SYSTEM DURING LIGHTNING STRIKE EXPOSURE

Jiawei Liu , Sren Find Madsen

Global Lightning Protection Service A/S
HI-Park 445, 7400 Herning, Denmark
1
2
jl@glps.dk, sfm@glps.dk

ABSTRACT
The present paper deals with the lightning
transients of the earthing system. The purpose is
to represent the response of an earthing system
accurately under lightning strike, considering the
geometry and the construction details, as well as
the soil topology surrounding the earthing system.
The Multilayer model of the soil is determined with
the Genetic Algorithm to correlate the soil
resistivity measurements. Surface potential
distributions of two different earthing electrodes
are calculated with the multilayer soil model. The
lightning impedances of the two earthing
electrodes are translated into lumped circuits with
vector fitting. Transient analysis is performed to
the lumped circuits of the earthing systems in time
domain in a case study.
Keywords: Earthing System modeling, Multi-Layer
Earth Model, Genetic Algorithm, Vector Fitting,
Lightning Transients Simulation.
INTRODUCTION
To increase the efficiency of wind turbines, the
size of the machines increase every day. Placing
these very large turbines at offshore locations
makes them very prone to lightning damages,
especially at sites where the lightning activity is
high. The installed and coordinated lightning
protection measures at the wind turbine will
intentionally protect the turbine from damages, but
the voltage and current surges will affect other
installations on the same grid depending on the
installation layout and the earthing system used.
Another profound location for wind turbines is in
mountainous regions, where the earthing
impedance is much different from the situation of
a monopole foundation at an offshore site. Here
the capacitances to remote earth may play a
significant role, and the time constants of the
impulse voltages experienced relative to remote
earth may be longer. The impact on the
neighboring installations is equally important and
depends to a large degree on the earthing system
available.
Often earthing systems are modelled using
analytical formulas depending on the geometry,

which only to a certain degree accounts for the

soil compositions and topology, the exact
geometry of the earthing system etc. In this paper
it is explained how the surrounding soil is
modelled accurately based on the soil measurements, the frequency response of the earthing
systems using Finite Element Method (FEM) is
calculated, and how the characteristics is
converted into time dependent models suitable for
EMTP simulations.
SOIL RESISTIVITY
WENNER METHOD

MEASUREMENT

WITH

A good understanding of the soil resistivity is

crucial for designing the earthing system
especially for lightning purposes. The Wenner
four-pin method is the most used test method for
measuring the resistivity of the soil. The four
electrodes are equally spaced between each
other in the test setup as shown in Fig. 1, and
they are driven into the earth at the same depth.
Current is injected at the outer two electrodes by a
DC current source, and the potential drop through
the soil between the two centre electrodes due to
the passage of current is measured. The soil
resistivity is calculated from the measurements
using equation (1)

Fig. 1. - Illustration of Wenner four-pin method.

Where
is the measured apparent soil
resistivity;
is the electrode spacing; d is the
depth of the electrodes and
is the Wenner
resistance measured as V/I.
The same resistivity test is conducted for different

spacing of the electrodes as the spacing between

the electrodes
is increased in steps. The
measurement of soil resistivity published by (Ref
1) is shown in Table 1. The soil resistivity is not
constant as the spacing increases in the
measurement, which implies that the soil structure
has at least two layers.

And the variables and

formulas in (4) and (5)
(

in (2) are given by the

Table 1 - Experimental results (Ref 1)

[m]

2.5

5.0

7.5

10.0

12.5

15.0

20.0

25.0

[m] 451.6 366.7 250.2 180.0 144.2 120.2 115.5 96.5

In the following part of this paper the soil resistivity

measurements in Table 1 will be used to illustrate
how the structure of the soil is determined from
the resistivity measurements, and further, the
lightning response of the earthing system is
studied based on this soil structure.

The calculation of the parameters ,

and of
the two-layer soil model is an optimization
problem. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is utilized
for solving this problem (Ref 2). The GA solves
optimization problems by mimicking the principles
of biological evolution, repeatedly modifying a
population of individual points using rules
modelled on gene combinations in biological
reproduction. The optimization problem is defined
as minimizing the function
in (6)

DETERMINATION OF THE SOIL STRUCTURE

Two-Layer earth model

The model for a horizontally stratified two-layer
earth structure is shown in Fig. 2, where h is the
thickness of the first layer;
and
are the
resistivities of the two layers. To decide the
structure of the two-layer earth model these three
parameters have to be determined.

Where
is the soil resistivity measurements
when the spacing between the electrodes in Fig.
1 is ;
is the calculated soil resistivity at the
same spacing
using equation (2). Different
functions of are compared in (Ref 3), where it is
concluded that (6) gives the most accurate result.
The optimization results using GA of the two-layer
earth model for the measurements in Table 1 are
shown in Table 2.
Table 2 - Parameters of the two-layer soil structure
estimated by GA

[
]
487.7
Fig. 2. - Two-layer earth model

The soil resistivity of a two-layer model can be

calculated using equation (2) below (Ref 2)
(

))

Where
is the coefficient of reflection from the
upper to the lower layer which is given in (3)

107.2

[m]
4.02

To verify the two-layer earth model optimized by

GA, the soil resistivity is both calculated by
equation (2) and simulated by a 3D earth model
using Finite Element Method (FEM) with the
software COMSOL Multiphysics. The results from
the calculation and simulation are plotted in Fig.
3.

Where is the Bessel function of the first kind of

order zero, and the factor
is given by the
formula (9) and (10),

For
the coefficient of reflection
two sequential layers is given by formula
Fig. 3. - Verification of the soil structure parameters
estimated by GA for the two-layer earth model.
Black dot: Soil resistivity measurement in Table 1;
Blue dash line: Soil resistivity calculated by
equation (2) using the GA results as shown in Table
2; Red dash line: Soil resistivity calculated by 3D
FEM model in COMSOL Multiphysics.

Clearly a fine correlation between the measurements and the two means of modelling the soil
resistivity is obtained
Three to N-Layer earth model
The model for a horizontally stratified N-layer
earth structure is shown in Fig. 4. For a N-layer
earth model, there are 2N-1 parameters which
need to be optimized including
and
.

for

The same equation

in (6) is used in the N-layer
model for the GA optimization process. In this
paper a three-layer earth model is built using the
soil resistivity measurement in Table 1. Five
parameters in the model are optimized using GA,
and the results are shown in Table 3,
Table 3 - Parameters of the three-layer soil structure
estimated by GA
[
]
[
[
[m]
[m]
564.3
274.3
63.2
2.22
5.29

The parameters of the model found by GA are

implemented into equation (7) to calculate the soil
resistivity theoretically, while a 3D model of the
three-layer earth model is built to simulate the soil
resistivity in FEM environment with COMSOL
Multiphysics. The theoretical calculation results
and the simulation results are plotted in Fig. 5.

Fig. 4. - N-layer earth model

The soil resistivity of the N-Layer earth model is

calculated using equation (7) below (Ref 2)
[
Where the function

can be expressed as

Fig. 5. - Verification of the soil structure parameters

estimated by GA for the three-layer earth model.
Black dot: Soil resistivity measurement in Table 1;
Blue dash line: Soil resistivity calculated by
equation (7) using the GA results as shown in
TABLE 3; Red dash line: Soil resistivity found by
simulation by a 3D FEM model in COMSOL

Multiphysics.

SURFACE POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION

With the parameters optimized by GA for the
three-layer earth model in Table 3, the surface
potential of the earthing system is calculated in
FEM domain with COMSOL Multiphysics. Fig. 6
and Fig. 7 show the peak potential distribution of
the mono pile earthing system and the concrete
gravity foundation system when LPL1 first return
stroke current components are injected (200kA
10/350s).

Fig. 8. - Surface potential calculation when the

structure is struck by the LPL1 lightning pulse,
200kA 10/350s. Blue line: Surface potential
distribution of the mono pile earthing system;
Green line: Surface potential distribution of the
gravity foundation earthing system.

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Fig. 6. - FEM simulation result of potential

distribution for the rod earthing system when it is
struck by the LPL1 first return stroke.

Since the lightning transient behaviour of an

earthing system has great influence on the
lightning protection capability of the electrical
system, the characteristics of the earthing system
need to be analysed in a wide frequency range so
that the lightning frequency up to 1MHz is
covered.
The geometry of the earthing system is an
important factor in defining the impedance
towards remote earth, but even more important is
the topology of the soil and surroundings in which
the earthing system is embedded. There is a large
difference whether the foundation is used for
earthing purposes, or the requirements are
achieved by using an external ring or rod
electrodes.

Fig. 7. FEM simulation result of potential

distribution for the gravity foundation earthing
system when it is struck by the LPL1 first return
stroke.

Fig. 8 shows that how the potential is distributed

on the surface of the earth within 20m of the
earthing system. The mono pile earthing system
exhibits a lower surface potential than the for the
gravity foundation system; however the gradient
of the curves imply that the step voltage of the
monopole system is larger than the gravity
foundation earthing.

Using the three-layer earth model given in Table

3, the frequency response is computed from DC
up to 100MHz for the real-life geometry of the
mono pile earthing system and the gravity
foundation earthing system by the means of FEM
with COMSOL Multiphysics. After this, an
approximation of the frequency response by using
Vector Fitting (VF) is achieved, which enables the
establishment of a transfer function from the
frequency response.
As long as the transfer function is defined by VF,
Circuit Synthesis translates the transfer function
into a frequency dependent lumped element
model, which gives the same characteristics for

the frequency range of DC to 100MHz.

Vector Fitting
Vector Fitting is a numerical method for
approximation in the frequency domain. It permits
to identify state space models as shown in
equation (12) directly from measured or computed
frequency responses, both for single or multiple
input/output systems. The detailed theory of the
VF is introduced in (Ref 4, 5 and 6).

The residues
and the poles
are either real
quantities or complex conjugate pairs, while and
are real. The purpose of VF is to estimate all
coefficients in (12) so that a least squares
approximation of
is obtained over a given
frequency interval. This is achieved by replacing
a set of starting poles with an improved set of
poles via a scaling procedure iteratively until the
error between
and the estimated function is
within the tolerance.
Circuit Synthesis
Once all the coefficients in (12) are estimated by
VF, a synthesized lumped circuit as shown in Fig.
9 can be defined to represent the same frequency
response as the estimated transfer function (Ref
7).

2) In case of real poles and

is real positive,
the equivalent component is a RL series
branch.

3) In case of real poles and

is real negative,
the equivalent component is a RC series
branch.

4) If the poles
and residues
are complex
conjugate pairs, the equivalent component is
a RL series branch connected in series with a
RC parallel branch.

Simulation Results
For both the rod earthing system and the concrete
foundation earthing system, the frequency
response is computed by means of FEM with
COMSOL Multiphysics from DC to 100MHz. The
frequency response is then used as input for VF
and finally a lumped circuit is found by circuit
synthesis to represent the same frequency
response of the earthing system.

1. The mono pile earthing system

After 4 iterations, a transfer function given by
equation (13) was obtained

Fig. 9. - Circuit synthesis schematic

The values of the lumped components in Fig. 9

are determined as follows,
1) The value of the grounded resistance R0 and
grounded capacitance C0 are determined by
the terms
and repectively.

Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show the synthesized circuit

for the rod earthing system, and the comparison
of its frequency response with the one calculated
by FEM with COMSOL Multiphysics.

Fig. 10. - Synthesized circuit for the rod earthing system

Fig 13. - The impedance calculation of the concrete

foundation earthing system from DC to 100MHz.
Blue line: the impedance found by the FEM model
using COMSOL Multiphysics; Red dash line: the
impedance of the lumped circuit defined by vector
fitting.
Fig. 11. - The impedance calculation of the rod
earthing system from DC to 100MHz. Blue line: the
impedance found by the FEM model using COMSOL
Multiphysics; Red dash line: the impedance of the
lumped circuit defined by vector fitting.

2. The gravity foundation earthing system

After 4 iterations, a transfer function given by
equation (14) was obtained

Fig. 12 and Fig 13 show the synthesized circuit for

the rod earthing system, and the comparison of its
frequency response with the one calculated by
FEM using COMSOL Multiphysics.

Fig. 12. - Synthesized circuit for the concrete

foundation earthing system

TRANSIENT SIMULATION IN TIME DOMAIN

The purpose of conducting transient analysis of a
wind farm is to foresee harmful over voltages or
surge currents within the system during lightning
exposure, and therefore enable the designers to
take their precautions.
For the purpose of visualizing the overall concept
a case story where 7 turbines connected in a
small wind farm is considered.
For the design chosen, different types of earthing
systems (foundations) are investigated to show
the differences in over voltages and surge
currents for the different earthing impedances.
The synthesized circuits presented in the previous
section are used to simulate the lightning transient
voltages of the wind farm in ATP/EMTP;
meanwhile a simple earthing system model
represented by a 10 resistor is used for
benchmarking.
Fig. 14 shows the transient overvoltage in the grid
when the lightning strike to one of the turbines.
The overvoltage is measured at the place of the
exposed turbine. The comparison reveals that the
synthesized grounding model gives higher peak
voltage than the ten ohm model, but on the other
hand it decays faster.

other electrical components together with the

earthing system, for example the transmission
line, the transformer, the circuit breaker etc.
The time domain simulation shows the difference
between the earthing system modelled by a DC
resistor and the synthesized circuit model. The
wide frequency range of the synthesized circuit is
believed to have better representation of the
actual physical earthing system.
Fig. 14. - The lightning transient in the grid for
different models of the earthing system in time
domain. The red line: earthing system modelled by
10 resistor; The blue line: the synthesized circuit
model of the mono pile earthing system; The green
line: the synthesised circuit model of the gravity
foundation earthing system.

CONCLUSION
In this paper, the proposed approach for
modelling the grounding system has been
successfully applied with actual soil measurements and real earthing system geometry taken
into account.
The GA was utilized to optimize the two-layer and
multi-layer earth model with actual soil parameter
measurements. The results provided by the GA
were implemented into a 3D FEM model in
COMSOL Multiphysics, and the simulation results
by FEM verified that both the two-layer and multilayer earth model gave good accuracy compared
with the measurements.
The surface potential was calculated using the
three-layer earth model during lightning strike for
the mono pile earthing system and the gravity
foundation system. The results obtained show that
the rod earthing system gives lower surface
potential but larger step voltage than the gravity
foundation system.
To find the characteristic of the earthing system
for a wide frequency range, the frequency
response was found using FEM. The algorithm of
vector fitting and circuit synthesis were
successfully applied to the frequency response
and an equivalent synthesized lumped circuit was
acquired.
The advantage of using the equivalent circuit is
the possibility to model the transient of the
earthing system efficiently with limited simulation
time. Besides this it is also easy to implement

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