IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2015

229

The Effect of an Ocean-Land Mixed Propagation Path

on the Lightning Electromagnetic Fields and Their
Induced Voltages on Overhead Lines
Keyhan Sheshyekani, Senior Member, IEEE, and Javad Paknahad, Student Member, IEEE

AbstractWe use a full-wave approach based on the nite-element method solution to Maxwell's equations for the evaluation of
the effect of an ocean-land mixed propagation path on the aboveground lightning electromagnetic elds and their induced voltages
on overhead lines. Two cases of normal and oblique strikes are
studied. For normal strike, it is shown that neither the vertical electric eld nor the azimuthal magnetic eld is affected by the considered mixed propagation path. For an oblique strike, however,
the azimuthal magnetic eld is slightly affected when the observation point is close to the ocean-land interface (i.e., 5 m or so), while
the vertical electric eld remains unchanged. For both normal and
oblique strikes, at moderate and far distances from the channel
base and when the observation point is located in the vicinity of the
ocean-land interface, the radial electric eld is markedly affected
by this interface. For the calculation of lightning-induced voltages,
two cases, namely, the ocean-side and the river-crossing transmission lines are studied. For the ocean-side transmission line, as the
overhead line gets closer to the ocean, the induced voltages on the
line midpoint decrease while increasing behavior is observed in the
voltages induced on the line terminations. For the river-crossing
transmission line, the lightning-induced voltages along the line experience a signicant change in terms of their peak values and
waveshapes. In some cases, the enhancement in induced voltages
can be as high as a factor of 2 with respect to that obtained by
assuming a homogeneous propagation path characterized by the
electrical properties of the land.
Index TermsElectromagnetic elds, nite-element method
(FEM), lightning-induced voltages, ocean-land mixed propagation
path.

I. INTRODUCTION

HERE HAS been a growing interest over the last few

decades, for accurate modeling of lightning interaction
with nearby overhead transmission lines. The relevance is
mainly due to the fact that lightning electromagnetic elds
can induce severe voltage stress on power system equipment.
These overvoltages, in particular, for distribution electrical
systems, can result in insulation breakdown, fault initiation, and
consequential line outages as well as deteriorating the power

Manuscript received January 07, 2014; revised May 24, 2014; accepted July
10, 2014. Date of publication July 28, 2014; date of current version January 21,
2015. Paper no. TPWRD-00012-2004
The authors are with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
Shahid Beheshti University, Velenjak, Tehran 1983963113, Iran (e-mail:
k_sheshyekani@sbu.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2014.2339096

quality of the utility networks. The overall modeling procedure

generally involves: 1) lightning return stroke modeling [1];
lightning electromagnetic pulse (LEMP) computation [2],
[3]; and LEMP-to-overhead line coupling calculation [4][6].
The rst developed models for calculating lightning-radiated
electromagnetic elds and their induced voltages on overhead
lines consider the ground as a homogeneous ideal or lossy
medium (e.g., [1][8]). However, this assumption is not always
valid in the sense that the ground might consist of different
horizontal or vertical layers whose electrical parameters are
frequency dependent [10] and [11]. Hence, a precise evaluation
of lightning-induced voltages on overhead lines is not possible
unless the exact model of the ground is taken into account. With
this regard, two critical issues at play are the multilayer soil
structure and the frequency dependence of soil electrical parameters. Recently, the effect of frequency dependence of soil
electrical parameters on the lightning electromagnetic elds
[9], [12] and their interaction with single and multiconductor
overhead lines [12] and [13] has been elaborately discussed.
Furthermore, there has also been an increasing tendency for
the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic elds above and
inside a horizontal or vertical two-layer stratied ground. So
far, these attempts have succeeded in predicting the lightning
electromagnetic elds above and inside horizontal two-layer
grounds mostly at close distances from the lightning channel
base. The early works that studied the wave propagation along
a vertically stratied ground (also called the mixed propagation
path) are mainly those presented by Millington [14], Suda
[15], and Bremmer [16]. The concept of attenuation function
presented by Wait [17] and [18] has been used by Shoory et
al. [19] for the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic elds
over a mixed propagation path showing that the Wait's formula
is only able to reproduce the lightning electromagnetic elds
for distant observation points. Recently, Zhang et al. [20]
have managed to modify the CoorayRubinstein formula in
a way to use it for the evaluation of lighting electromagnetic
elds above a smooth ocean-land mixed path. The accuracy
of the method is, however, limited to conductivities ranging
from 0.01 to 0.001 S/m when the elds propagate from the
ocean surface to the land section [21]. More recently, a nite
difference approach has been used to determine the effect
of a horizontally stratied ground on the lightning-induced
voltages on overhead lines [22]. Furthermore, the effect of
horizontally and vertically stratied ground on the underground

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

lightning electromagnetic elds and their induced currents on

the buried cables have been recently evaluated in [23] and [24].
Therefore, more investigations are required to study the effect
of soil vertically stratication on the above-ground lightning
electromagnetic elds and their associated induced voltages on
the nearby overhead lines.
Within this context, this paper focuses on the analysis of the
effect of an ocean-land mixed propagation path on the lightning-radiated electromagnetic elds at different distances from
the channel base as well as on their associated induced voltages on overhead lines. The cases of normal and oblique incidences are discussed. The lightning-induced voltages on an
overhead transmission line crossing over a river are also studied.
To this aim, we use a full-wave approach which is based on the
nite-element method (FEM) solution of Maxwell's equations.
The developed model allows the evaluation of the above-ground
lightning electromagnetic elds and the induced voltages on the
overhead lines located above a vertically stratied ground.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the nite-element modeling of the problem is briey discussed.
In Section III, the effect of an ocean-land mixed propagation
path on the above-ground lightning electromagnetic eld
is evaluated. Section IV discusses the same effect on the
lightning-induced voltage on an ocean-side overhead line. In
Section V, the lightning-induced voltages on a river-crossing
overhead line are discussed. Finally, some general conclusions
are presented in Section VI.
II. FULL-WAVE FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING
The electromagnetic wave (EMW) solver of the RF-Module
of the COMSOL multiphysics [25] is utilized for the calculation
of lightning electromagnetic elds and their induced voltages on
overhead lines (e.g., [12] and [13]). This enables us to calculate
the lightning electromagnetic elds in 2-D and 3-D spaces in the
time domain. To this end, the weak-form representation of the
time-domain wave equation of the magnetic vector potential is
solved by the nite-element method [26].
The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 1. In this
conguration, the mixed propagation path involves the land
and the ocean which are, respectively, characterized by conand
.
ductivity and relative permittivity of
In COMSOL, Natural Neumann conditions are used in the
soil-air and in the soil-ocean interfaces, while the natural
Dirichlet conditions are imposed on the solution domain as
the external boundary condition [12]. In our modeling, the
radius of the overhead line wire and the lightning channel are
very small compared to the mesh dimensions. Due to this fact
and to avoid a large and inefcient matrix system in the FEM
formulation, the conductor wire is reasonably modeled as a
sequence of mesh edges (as in [12] and [13]). To apply the
nite-element approach to open region problems, such as for
lightning radiated electromagnetic elds study, an articial
boundary is introduced in order to dene the region of analysis
and to limit the number of unknowns to a manageable size. For
this purpose, the scattering boundary condition available in the
RF module is used in order to prevent the waves from being
reected by the boundaries [25].

Fig. 1. Geometry for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic elds above

a vertically stratied two-layer ground (ocean-land mixed propagation path). (a)
Side view. (b) Top view.
TABLE I
HEIDLER'S PARAMETERS FOR SUBSEQUENT STROKE ADOPTED FROM [27]

In this study, the modied transmission line with an exponential decay model (MTLE) is adopted for modeling the lightning
return stroke channel with a current height decay of
2000
m/s, acm, assuming a return stroke speed of
cording to which the current distribution along the channel is
specied as
(1)
where
is the channel current at height
denotes the return stroke speed, and is the current height decay constant. As
for the lightning channel-base current, we use Heidler's function
whose parameters are listed in Table I [27]. Note that the sum
of two Heidler's functions is used to represent the subsequent
return stroke current [28].
III. EFFECT OF THE OCEAN-LAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH
ON THE ABOVE-GROUND LIGHTNING EM FIELDS
With reference to Fig. 1, we aim at evaluating the lightning10
radiated electromagnetic elds above the ground at

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: EFFECT OF AN OCEAN-LAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH

231

Fig. 2. Azimuthal component of the magnetic eld

at 10 m above an
50 m, (b)
300 m, (c)
ocean-land mixed propagation path: (a)
1000 m. Observation point
(normal strike). Return stroke current is typical
of subsequent strokes.

Fig. 3. Vertical component of the electric eld

at 10 m above an ocean50 m, (b)
300 m, (c)
1000
land mixed propagation path: (a)
(normal strike). Return stroke current typical of subm. Observation point
sequent strokes.

m, in the presence of an ocean-land mixed propagation path.

Fig. 1 depicts the geometry for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic elds when the electromagnetic wave is incident
) or obliquely (i.e., incident
normally (i.e., incident
) on the ocean-land interface. The former situation
is referred to as a normal strike, while the latter is referred to
as an oblique strike. Note that the incident angle is measured
with respect to a line that is parallel to the coastline. We calculate the electromagnetic elds due to the normal and oblique
and
shown in Fig. 1. The Return
strikes, respectively, at
stroke current is a typical of subsequent strokes whose parameters are listed in Table I. For the case of a normal strike, we
assume that the lightning strikes the land surface characterized
0.001 S/m and
10, while the ocean is characterby
ized by a conductivity of
4 S/m and relative permittivity of
30. We present the azimuthal component of the magnetic
and the vertical and horizontal components of
eld
the electric eld
evaluated at distances of
5
and 50 m from the land-ocean interface, when the distance between the lightning channel and the observation point is
50, 300, and 1000 m. In each case, the results are compared with
those obtained for the case of a homogeneous soil characterized
by the electrical properties of the land. Moreover, the electromagnetic elds are obtained in the absence of the overhead line.
Fig. 2 shows the azimuthal component of the magnetic eld
(i.e., normal strike). The vertical and the horizontal comat
ponents of the electric eld for the same case are shown in
Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. Examining these gures, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) As seen from Fig. 2, the effect of an ocean-land mixed
propagation path on the azimuthal component of the magnetic eld is negligible for all considered cases, and this

component could be calculated assuming homogeneous

soil with the same properties of the land.
2) The vertical component of the electric eld is also not affected by the ocean-land mixed propagation path. However, at far distances, this effect slightly changes the vertical electric eld above the ground.
3) The radial component of the electric eld at moderate and
300 m and
far distances from the channel base (i.e.,
1000 m) when the observation point is located close to the
or so) is signicantly affected by
ocean (i.e.,
the ocean-land interface. In these cases, as can be seen in
Fig. 4, this effect results in a reduction of the peak magnitude of the radial electric eld by about 30% compared
to the case of homogeneous soil characterized by the electrical properties of the land. Note that this component is
not affected at close distances from the lightning channel
base [Fig. 4(a)].
It is worth noting that the reported observations about the
effect of an ocean-land mixed propagation path on the vertical
electric eld and the azimuthal magnetic eld are reasonable
since these components at distances from the lightning channel
not exceeding a kilometer or so are not much affected by the
ground conductivity [29]. Hence, it is expected that the change
of ground layers does not affect these eld components.
For the case of an oblique strike, we calculate the same comconsidponents of the lightning electromagnetic elds at
ering
5 and 50 m, when the distance between the lightning
316 m for both cases.
channel and the observation points is
Note that in this case,
300 m. The calculated elds are
shown in Fig. 5. As can be seen from this gure, the radial electric eld is signicantly affected by the ocean-land mixed propagation path when the observation point is located in the vicinity

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 6. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced voltages on an oceanside overhead line. The case of land strike.

Fig. 4. Horizontal component of the electric eld

at 10 m above an ocean50 m, (b)
300 m, (c)
1000
land mixed propagation path: (a)
(normal strike). Return stroke current typical of subm. Observation point
sequent strokes.

Fig. 7. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced voltages on an oceanside overhead line. (a) Top view. (b) Side view. The case of land strike.

It is worth mentioning that the validity of the proposed approach for calculating the lightning electromagnetic elds and
their induced voltages on overhead lines has been comprehensively discussed in recent works by comparing the results with
the NEC and the LIOV code (see [13]).
IV. LIGHTNING-INDUCED VOLTAGES
OVERHEAD LINES

ON

OCEAN-SIDE

A. Land Strike
Fig. 5. Different components of the lightning electromagnetic elds at 10 m
300 m and
316 m.
above an ocean-land mixed propagation path for
, (b)
, (c)
,. Observation point
(oblique strike). Return stroke
(a)
current typical of subsequent strokes.

of the ocean-land interface (i.e., 5 m or so). Moreover, contrary

to the case of normal strike, the azimuthal magnetic eld at close
vicinity of the ocean is slightly affected by the considered mixed
propagation path showing a modest increase with respect to the
case of the homogeneous soil with the same properties of the
land.

The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 6 for which

the top view and the side view are also shown in Fig. 7. We
rst consider the case of a lightning strike to the land surface,
referred to as a land strike. The single conductor overhead
line is located entirely above the land which is referred to as
ocean-side overhead line. The line has a length of
1000
m, matched at both sides and its height above the ground is
10 m. The lightning channel is 50 m away from the line
center and equidistant to the line ends. The land and the ocean
are characterized by the same properties presented in Section III.
Simulations are performed for different distances between the
overhead line and the ocean. Note that in doing so, we keep the

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: EFFECT OF AN OCEAN-LAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH

233

Fig. 8. Induced voltages on the midpoint

of the ocean-side matched overhead line shown in Fig. 7 due to a typical subsequent return stroke. The case of
land strike.

Fig. 10. Induced voltages on the termination

of the ocean-side matched
overhead line shown in Fig. 7 due to a typical subsequent return stroke. The
case of ocean strike.

Fig. 9. Total vertical electric eld at

, 5 m right beneath the line center point
as shown in Fig. 7. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

Fig. 11. Total vertical electric eld at

, 5 m right beneath the line termination
as shown in Fig. 7. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

distance between the overhead line and the lightning channel

constant for all situations. Following the procedure described in
[12], the induced voltage is determined by integrating the total
vertical component of the electric eld along a vertical path between the line conductor surface and the ground surface. Lightning-induced voltages on the midpoint of the overhead line ,
due to a typical subsequent return stroke (see Table I) are shown
in Fig. 8 for different distances between the overhead line and
the ocean. Results associated with the case of homogeneous soil
characterized by the electrical properties of the land are also
shown in Fig. 8. As can be seen from Fig. 8, when the lightning
channel strikes on the land surface, as the overhead line gets
closer to the ocean, the induced voltages on the line midpoint
show decreasing behavior. In fact, when increasing the distance
between the overhead line and the ocean, this induced voltage
becomes closer to the case of homogeneous soil characterized
by the land electrical properties. As discussed in the previous
section, the effect of the ocean-land mixed propagation path on
the vertical component of the electric eld in free space and in
the absence of the overhead line is negligible. As known, the induced voltage is obtained by integrating the total vertical electric eld along a vertical path between the conductor surface and
the ground surface. Hence, in a similar way, any change in the
induced voltage should be justied by the associated change in
the total vertical electric eld.
It should be pointed out that by the total vertical electric eld,
we mean the sum of the exciting electric eld generated by the
lightning channel in the absence of the overhead line and the
scattered electric eld that is the eld generated by the induced
currents and charges along the line. To further clarify this issue,
Fig. 9 shows the total vertical electric eld calculated at
which is 5 m beneath the center point of the line conductor [see
Fig. 7(b)]. It is seen from this gure that, unlike the exciting vertical electric eld, the total vertical component of the electric
eld is inuenced by the ocean-land mixed propagation path.

Hence, the induced voltage, which is an integration of the vertical component of the electric eld, is affected too. Indeed, as
can be seen from Fig. 8, for the considered case, the mixed path
results in a decrease on the peak value of the voltages induced on
the line midpoint. For the same case, we calculate the induced
(Fig. 10). It can be seen from
voltages at the line termination
this gure that the effect of the ocean-land mixed propagation
path on the induced voltages is different from the previous case.
In fact, at the line terminations and when the lightning strikes
the land surface, as the overhead line gets closer to the ocean, the
induced voltages increase, showing a relatively faster rise time
with respect to the induced voltage obtained for the homogeneous soil characterized by the electrical properties of the land.
To further evaluate this observation, we calculate the total vertical electric eld at ; a point 5 m right beneath the line at its
termination [see Fig. 7(b)] as shown in Fig. 11. It is clearly seen
from this gure that the presence of the ocean-land mixed propagation path constructively contributes to enhancing the total
vertical electric eld at points beneath the line terminations.
Hence, the induced voltage at the line termination is increased
too. These observations comply with the previous ndings discussing the effect of soil conductivity on the lightning-induced
voltages on overhead lines. For the considered stroke location,
the presence of an ocean layer can be interpreted as if the soil becomes less resistive which results in an increase of the induced
voltage at the line extremities, while the induced voltages at the
line midpoint decrease [30].
B. Ocean Strike
To further evaluate the effect of the ocean-land mixed propagation path on the lightning-induced voltages on the ocean-side
overhead lines, we consider another simulation case where the
lightning strikes on the ocean surface. The line is matched at
100 m away from the
both sides. The lightning channel is
line center and equidistant to the line terminations as shown in

234

Fig. 12. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced voltages on an

ocean-side matched overhead line. The case of ocean strike.

Fig. 13. Induced voltages on the matched overhead line shown in Fig. 12 due
and (b) at the
to a typical subsequent return stroke at (a) the line midpoint
. The case of ocean strike.
line termination

Fig. 12. The simulations are performed for different distances

between the overhead line and the ocean. In this case, we keep
the distance between the overhead line and the lightning channel
constant. Lightning-induced voltages at the midpoint and the
and ) are shown
left termination of the overhead line (i.e.,
in Fig. 13. As can be seen from Fig. 13(a), for the ocean strike,
, as the overhead line gets closer to
the induced voltages at
the ocean, slightly decrease. Note that for the considered geometry, the induced voltages are still less than those associated with
the homogeneous soil characterized by the properties of the land
itself. Similar to the land strike, the induced voltage at the line
increases with the decreasing distance between
termination
the line and the ocean. It is also seen from this gure that the
induced voltage is characterized by a different polarity for the
rst peak compared to the case in which the effect of the ocean
is disregarded.
V. LIGHTNING-INDUCED VOLTAGES ON RIVER-CROSSING
OVERHEAD LINES
To further study the effect of the mixed-propagation path, we
consider a transmission line crossing over a river referred to
as the river-crossing line as shown in Fig. 14. The line has
1000 m, open ended at both sides, and consists
a length of

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 14. Geometry for the calculation of the lightning-induced voltages on a

river-crossing overhead line. (a) Top view. (b) Side view. The case of land strike.

of three sections, whose middle section of length

is entirely
located above the river. The side sections are of equal length
and located above the ground at both sides of the river. We assume a at prole for the line at a height of 10 m above the
ground surface, and the river and the land are assumed to be at
the same level. We consider two different lightning strike locations, namely, SL#3 (end stroke) and SL#4 (side stroke) at
the land surface for which the induced voltages on the overhead
in Fig. 14) and both of its terminations
line midpoint (i.e.,
(i.e.,
and
in Fig. 14) are reported in Figs. 15 and 16,
respectively. The lightning return stroke current is the typical
subsequent current. A careful examination of these gures further accentuates the effect of the mixed propagation path on the
lightning-induced voltages on overhead lines and the following
conclusions can be drawn:
1) For both of end and side strokes, the late time response of
the induced voltages on the near termination of the rivercrossing overhead line are affected by the mixed-propagation path [Figs. 15(a) and 16(a)].
2) The peak value and the waveshape of the induced voltages at the line midpoint and the line remote termination
are markedly affected by the presence of the river. In fact,
the presence of the river generally tends to increase the induced voltages at the line midpoint and remote termination. This is more pronounced for the end-stroke case, in
particular, at the line remote termination (i.e., ) whereas
the induced voltage is likely to increase by a factor of
2, showing a different polarity compared to that induced
voltage associated with the homogeneous soil characterized by the electrical properties of the land [Fig. 15(c)].
Similar to the ocean-side overhead line, the presented results
for the induced voltages should be justied by the effect of the
river on the total vertical electric-eld component. Hence, we
,
show in Fig. 17, this component of the electric eld at
, and
all located 5 m beneath the line conductor [see
Fig. 14(b)]. It is seen from Fig. 17 that the effect of the considered mixed propagation path on the total vertical component
of the electric eld appropriately justies the same effect on the
induced voltages on the line midpoint and extremities.
It should be pointed out that in the presented simulations,
the frequency dependence of soil electrical parameters has been

SHESHYEKANI AND PAKNAHAD: EFFECT OF AN OCEAN-LAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH

Fig. 15. Induced voltages on the river-crossing overhead line shown in

Fig. 14 due to a typical subsequent return stroke striking the land at SL#3
, (b) line midpoint
, and (c) line remote
at (a) line near termination
.
termination

235

Fig. 17. Total vertical component of the electric eld at three observation
points shown in Fig. 14 due to a typical subsequent return stroke striking the
, (b) , and (c) .
land at SL#3 at (a)

using 140167 mesh elements. For the calculation of electromagnetic elds, we used a 2-D nite-element modeling in the time
domain which takes about 30 s. However, the induced voltages
are obtained using 3-D nite-element modeling in the time domain which takes about 15 min.
It is worth noting that the FEM has no substantial theoretical limitation for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic
elds and their associated voltages/currents on overhead lines
and buried cables. However, the most limiting factor with the
FEM is its prohibitive time requirement for dealing with real
and long overhead lines and buried cables.
VI. CONCLUSION

Fig. 16. Induced voltages on the river-crossing overhead line shown in

Fig. 14 due to a typical subsequent return stroke striking the land at SL#4
, (b) line midpoint
, and (c) line remote
at (a) line near termination
.
termination

disregarded. As known, this property can affect the lightninginduced voltages when the soil conductivity takes a relatively
moderate and low value 0.001 S/m) [9][13].
It is noted that the simulations are conducted on an Intel i7
PC with 64-GB RAM. A system of linear equations is obtained

In this paper, we used a full-wave nite-element-based solution of Maxwell's equations for the evaluation of the effect of
an ocean-land mixed propagation path on the lightning electromagnetic elds at different distances from the lightning channel
base. It was shown that for both normal and oblique strikes, the
presence of the ocean-land mixed propagation path affects the
radial component of the electric eld at moderate and far distances from the channel when the observation point is located in
the close vicinity of the ocean. For a normal strike, the azimuthal
magnetic eld is not affected by the ocean-land mixed propagation path, while for the oblique strike, this component is slightly
affected when the observation point is very close to the ocean.
The vertical electric eld is not affected by the ocean-land mixed
propagation path.
For the calculation of induced voltages, two types of overhead
line were considered:
ocean-side line where the line lays in parallel to the oceanland interface;

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 30, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2015

river-crossing line where the line crosses over a river.

For the case of the ocean-side line, the presented simulations
have shown that for land and ocean strikes:
1) the induced voltages at the line midpoint decrease with the
decreasing distance between the line and the ocean;
2) the induced voltages at the line terminations increase as the
line gets closer to the ocean.
For the case of the river-crossing line, the presented simulations have shown that for the end and side strikes to the land:
1) the late time response of the induced voltages on the near
termination of the river-crossing overhead line is affected
by the mixed-propagation path;
2) the peak values and the waveshapes of the induced voltages at the line midpoint and the line remote termination
are markedly affected by the presence of the river; an enhancement as high as a factor of 2 with respect to that obtained by assuming a homogeneous propagation path characterized by the properties of the land might be observed.
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Keyhan Sheshyekani (M'10SM'13) received the B.S. degree in electrical

engineering from Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, in 2001, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2003 and 2008, respectively.
He was with Ecole Polytechnique, Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne,
Switzerland, in 2007 as a Visiting Scientist and later as a Research Assistant.
He was an Invited Professor at the EPFL in 2014. Currently, he is an Assistant
Professor of Electrical Engineering with Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran.
His research interests include power system modeling and simulation, smart
grid, microgrids, and electromagnetic compatibility.

Javad Paknahad (S'14) was born in Iran in 1989. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Tafresh campus, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2011 and the M.S. degree in
electrical engineering from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, in 2013.
Currently, he is a Research Assistant at the Power System Laboratory, Shahid
Beheshti University. His research interests include power system modeling and
simulations, electromagnetic compatibility, and the application of electromagnetics in power systems.