Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Experimental impulse response of grounding grids

Silverio Visacro ∗ , Miguel B. Guimarães, Listz S. Araujo
Lightning Research Center, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Experimental tests, consisting in the impression of low amplitude impulsive currents with lightning-
Available online 30 May 2012 patterned waveforms on a real grounding grid, were performed to assess the grid transient response.
Simultaneous waves of current and grounding potential rise were measured considering the current
Keywords: impression on different positions along the grid electrodes (earth termination) to determine the impulsive
Grounding electrodes grounding impedance. Currents with very short front-times were used to show strong propagation effects
Lightning
in the soil, responsible for values of grounding impedance always significantly larger than the measured
Transient response of grounding electrodes
low frequency resistance and strongly dependent on the position where current was impressed on the
Experimental response of grounding
electrodes
grid.
Grounding grids © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Impulse impedance

1. Introduction This picture motivates the development of experimental tests

The response of grounding electrodes subjected to lightning cur-
rents is typically different from that developed to low frequency
currents, such as short-circuits. As discussed in [1], this behaviour
comprises different aspects. The response to impulsive currents,
the frequency dependence of soil parameters and the ionization
process are the most relevant ones.
Some recent authors’ publications address these aspects. Soil
ionization is considered in [2,3]. In particular, a relevant con-
tribution on the frequency dependence of soil resistivity and
permittivity has been published very recently [4,5], motivated by
investigations of the impulse response of single horizontal and ver-
tical electrodes described in a previously published paper [6].
Some preliminary experimental evaluations were also devel-
oped for grounding grids [7]. The present work complements the
results of such work, extending the evaluations to the case of cur-
rents of both very short and longer front-times.
Though the literature has already provided efficient approaches
to perform evaluations of the transient response of grounding
electrodes, such as the different numerical computational models
described in [8–10], the results provided by such models are quite
dependent on the assumptions adopted for the behaviour of the soil
where electrodes are buried and experimental data are required to
check the quality of such results.
of the transient response of grounding electrodes. However, the
measurement of the quantities involved in the impulse response of
the grounding electrodes is a complex task due to the large number
of parameters that influence on the results and due to effects of
electromagnetic interference of such quantities on the measuring
system.
This makes the availability of reliable experimental data on
this field very rare. The literature presents some contributions
of the experimental impulse response of electrodes, such as the
laboratorial results presented in [11] for reduced scale mod-
els of different electrode arrangements. Specific results for rods
(single and three parallel rods) buried in low resistivity soil
are presented [12] and the response of horizontal electrodes,
of a 3 m × 3 m grid and of a simple tower footing is presented
in [13].
The need of reliable experimental data, in particular for ground-
ing grids buried in natural soils, motivates the developments of this
work that shows some results on the response of grids subjected to
impulsive currents, whose waveform and front-times are shorter
or similar to those of lightning currents.
2. Developments
2.1. Experimental set-up

The authors developed an experimental investigation, using the

setup presented in Fig. 1.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 31 34094872; fax: +55 31 34095455. The electrodes under test consisted of a rectangular 16 m × 20 m
E-mail addresses: Lrc@cpdee.ufmg.br, visacro@cpdee.ufmg.br (S. Visacro). grid, comprising 20 regular 4 m × 4 m meshes, buried 0.5 m deep

0378-7796/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsr.2012.04.011
 S. Visacro et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98
Fig. 1. Representation of the experimental setup. Impulsive current waves were impressed by an impulse generator from the grounding grid under test to an auxiliary grid.
Both the current and the developed grounding potential rise in relation to remote earth were measured using a two channel oscilloscope.
Adapted from [7].
in the soil whose apparent resistivity is around 250 m. A steel-
galvanized-alloy conductor 0.5-cm radius was used as electrode.
The value of the low frequency resistance RLF of this grid
ranged from 6 to 6.5 . This small variation is due to the specific
conditions of the day, when it was measured. This set up is the
same used in the measurements of Ref. [7], though the soil resistiv-
ity has increased from the former value around 175 m due to the
variation of soil humidity. The variation of the measured RLF men-
tioned above resulted from the variation of soil resistivity around
10% along the period of measurements [14].
2.2. Practical issues related to measurements
Basically the experimental tests consisted in the impression of
low amplitude impulsive currents with lightning-patterned wave-
forms on different points along the grounding grid and in the
measurement of both the impressed current and the developed
grounding potential rise GPR at the point where current was
impressed.
Fig. 2 depicts the points of reference along the grid, where
current waves were impressed on and developed potentials were
measured.
A man-made generator used to apply 1.5 kV impulse voltage
waves to the circuit, being the current limited basically by the surge
impedance of the current-circuit cables. Parallel cables displaced
properly were used to reduce such impedance and, therefore, to
increase the resulting current.
The impulse generator is basically composed by an analogue
voltage multiplier that is driven by a sinusoidal voltage source. The
multiplier, consisting of an arrangement of capacitors and diodes,
provides a high DC voltage input to a circuit responsible for shap-
ing the desired current waveform. Once the multipliers capacitors
are fully charged (the maximum voltage is achieved), an electronic
switch connects this high voltage source to two parallel RC-circuits.
Fig. 2. Arrangement of the grid tested in the experiments.
93
The parameters of such circuits are adjusted to obtain different
front-times and durations of the test current.
The auxiliary grid consisted of six 1.5-m long rods posi-
tioned along a circle with 1.5-m radius. Matching impedances
(∼300- resistors) were placed between the connection of the
auxiliary grid and cables of the current circuit to minimize
reflections, responsible for disturbing the original waveforms of
current.
The position of the remote earth used as reference for volt-
ages measurements was found along an orthogonal line (in relation
to the direction linking the main and auxiliary grid – see Fig. 1),
at a distance of 60 m from the grid under test. An almost flat
region, in terms of peak-voltage value, was found at distances
longer than 55 m. A 1-m long rod was buried at this position and
it was connected to the oscilloscope responsible for voltage and
current measurement and placed close to the grid by an aerial
cable.
In the first measurements, a significant electromagnetic cou-
pling between the cables of the measuring circuit and the grid
electrodes was responsible for a strong interference on measure-
ments. The cables of the current and voltage circuits were placed
3 m above the soil and vertical down-conductors were used to con-
nect the cables to the grid in order to minimize such interferences.
Furthermore, a spurious voltage signal was detected in the soil. The
amplitude of such signal required a specific procedure to minimize
its effect on measurements.
2.3. The testing signals
The grid was subjected to impulsive low-amplitude current
waves (2–5 A peak values). In the first tests, three types of current
waveforms corresponding to very short pulses were impressed to
the grid to explore its transient response. Their front-times TF and
durations were approximately given by 100 ns/900 ns, 0.7 ␮s/3 ␮s
and 1.5 ␮s/10 ␮s. The waveform with 100-ns front-time was used
to stress the propagation effects along the grid. Later, front-times
and duration were adjusted to resemble better the parameters
of real lightning currents, though the use of a very short front-
time current was preserved to denote the propagation effects.
The following pairs of front-time and time-to-half peak 0.15/2 ␮s,
0.7/16 ␮s, 2/120 ␮s, and 4/140 ␮s were used. In particular, the
front-times of 4 ␮s and 0.7 ␮s are typical of a first and a subsequent
lightning return stroke currents, respectively.
94 S. Visacro et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98

Fig. 3. Measured grounding potential rise GPR and current waves for the impressed 100-ns front-time current: (a) grid corner, (b) grid side and (c) grid centre.

3. Results corner to the side and, then, to the centre of the grid is very clearly
shown in Fig. 3.
Impulsive currents were impressed on each point indicated in
Fig. 2 and the simultaneous pair of current and GPR were measured.
3.2. The response of the grid subjected to 0.15–4-s front time
At least four measurements were taken at each point to ensure
currents
consistent results. Results such as the ones presented in Fig. 3 were
obtained in each case.
This section considers a set of results corresponding to the
response of the grid subjected to current waves with longer
3.1. Preliminary results developed for the 100-ns front-time
durations and front-times varying from 150 ns to 4 ␮s. All measure-
currents
ments were taken in the same day along a 7 h interval. Figs. 4 and 5
show the impressed current waves and corresponding GPR at the
The results of measurements for currents impressed on the grid
grid corner and centre, respectively. As a matter of fact, both the
corner with 100-ns front-times are presented in Fig. 3(a) and those
current and voltage waves of these figures are the average curves
developed for impression of currents on the grid side and on the
obtained for at least 4 measurements, synchronized at the instant
grid centre are presented in Fig. 3(b) and (c) respectively. The same
the current waves reached 50% of the peak value at the front wave.
kind of results was developed for currents with longer front-times
This procedure was required to reduce the effect of the spurious
(0.7 ␮s and 1.5 ␮s).
voltage signal.
The results of Fig. 3 have very good quality at the wavefront,
The presented results denote several aspects. First, the effect of
though the voltage wave is affected at the wave tail by the men-
the spurious signal in the GPR curves is very clear for currents with
tioned spurious signal that is responsible for the negative values
longer front-time (2 and 4 ␮s). Nevertheless, the use of filtering
seen in the curve.
techniques allowed determining the impulse impedance ZP of the
The impulse impedance ZP , calculated from the ratio of the peaks
grid in each position, even for the current wave with 4-␮s front-
of developed GPR (VP ) and impressed current waves (IP ) for the
time. Table 2 summarizes such impedance, obtained as the average
measured waves such as those of Fig. 3, were calculated in each case,
value of at least 4 measurements in each case.
as exemplified by the results of Table 1 obtained for the impression
The results of Figs. 4 and 5 and Table 2 show the same behaviour
of a 100-ns front-time current on point C. The very little deviation of
observed in the results of Section 3.1: the decrease of the GPR,
the impedances denotes the consistency of the measurements and
and consequently of ZP , when the position of current impression
the very little influence of the spurious signal at the wave front.
is moved from the grid corner to the side and, then, to the centre
The decrease of GPR, and consequently of impulse impedance
of the grid. Furthermore, in all cases, a very significant reduction of
ZP , when the position of current impression is moved from the grid

Table 1 Table 2
Impulse impedance determined from voltage and current waves (current front- Average impulse impedance as a function of front-time and position (measured RLF :
time: 100-ns – point C). 6.5 ).
Measurement ZP = VP /IP () Position ZP (VP /IP ) ()
1st 34.83
TF = 150 ns TF = 0.7 ␮s TF = 2 ␮s TF = 4 ␮s
2nd 34.73
3rd 34.77 A (corner) 49 21 9.5 6.9
4th 34.68 C (side) 36 12 6.7 5.6
Average value of ZP 34.75 B (centre) 32 10 5.8 5.3
 S. Visacro et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98 95

Fig. 4. Average GPR (grounding potential rise) and current waves at the grid corner. Impressed currents: (a) 0.15/2 ␮s, (b) 0.7/16 ␮s, (c) 2/120 ␮s and (d) 4/140 ␮s.

both GPR and ZP is observed while the front time is increased from
the shortest value (150 ns) to the largest one (4 ␮s).
3.3. The harmonic impedance of the grounding grid
From the measurements of GPR and associate currents, it
was possible to determine with quite good quality the harmonic
impedance of the grounding grid seen from each of the positions
the current was impressed on. Fast Fourier Transform was applied
to both voltage and current average waves to determine each
frequency component, respectively V(ω) and I(ω), and then the har-
monic impedance was obtained from their ratio Z(ω) = V(ω)/I(ω).
Fig. 6 shows the resulting impedance at the three positions. The
presented curves were built superposing the results obtained from
three waves (front times of 0.15, 0.7 and 4 ␮s). The impedance
behaviour along the frequency range is relatively smooth and the
observed peaks and oscillations are attributed to components of
the spurious voltage signal.
As expected in all cases the harmonic impedance shows a value
around the low frequency resistance RLF below 20 kHz and then
starts to rise slowly due to an inductive effect. The frequency this
rising begins depends on the position of current impression. For
the corner position it starts earlier, around 30 kHz. It tends to start
later when the position approaches the grid centre. In this case,
the rising starts later, at frequencies higher than 100 kHz. In all
cases, the increase of impedance diminishes at the high frequency

Fig. 5. Average GPR (grounding potential rise) and current waves at the grid centre Impressed currents: (a) 0.15/2 ␮s, (b) 0.7/16 ␮s, (c) 2/120 ␮s and (d) 4/140 ␮s.
96 S. Visacro et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98

Fig. 6. Diagrams of grounding impedance in the frequency range of interest for lightning currents: (a) at grid corner, (b) at grid side and (c) at grid centre.

range and this impedance seems to decrease after 3 MHz. This

behaviour is accompanied by the reduction of the impedance phase
that decreases after 1 MHz.

4. Discussion and conclusions

The results presented herein can be analyzed in terms of the

effects of the front-time and of current-impression position.
For any considered current impression position, it is clear that
decreasing the front-time increases both GPR and ZP . The results
summarized in Table 2 indicate that the impulse impedance found
for the currents with the shortest front-time is very significantly
larger than that of currents with the longer front-time. A ratio
around 7 is obtained for their impulse impedances, considering any Fig. 7. Typical experimental profile of the impulse coefficient IC , given by the ratio
position (corner, side and grid centre). This ratio is within the 2–3 between the impulse impedance ZP and low-frequency resistance RLF , as a function
of the electrode length taking the effective length LEF as reference.
range if typical front times of lightning subsequent and first return
Adapted from Ref. [4]
stroke currents are considered, respectively 0.7 and 4 ␮s. This result
is consistent with the concepts presented in [1] and discussed in
[6], illustrated by the graph of Fig. 7. For a given length of elec- resistivity around 250  m and currents with front-times shorter
trode, the decrease of the front-time reduces the effective length than 2 ␮s is expected to be shorter than 15 m. And this value is
and displaces the impulse coefficient (ZP /RLF ) towards the right decreased further as the front-time becomes shorter.
region of the graph, where this coefficient increases continuously. It is worth mentioning that the value of IC below unit (on the
Only for reference, let comment that the effective length for a soil left of LEF ) is very low only for soils presenting very high resistivity
 S. Visacro et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 94 (2013) 92–98
(IC varying from 0.4 to 0.7). For soils with resistivity value below
300  m, this coefficient tends to the range of 0.85–0.96.
Another result that is qualitatively consistent with the dis-
cussions of the mentioned references concerns the observation
that for any front-time, the impedance reduces when the posi-
tion is moved from the corner to the grid side and then to the
grid centre (from A to C to B). This reduction varies according to
the current front-time but is very significant for the front-times
shorter than 4 ␮s, leading the impedance to around 50% of the
value found at the grid corner (from 48% to 65%). In Ref. [1], the
relevant influence of the position of earth termination along the
grid on the value of grounding impedance for short front-time
impulsive currents is discussed. It is shown that for a long hor-
izontal electrode buried in low resistivity soils, the impedance
varies significantly according to the position of current impres-
sion. This impedance can be decreased to about its half-value when
this position is moved from the electrode extremity to the cen-
tre. A similar behaviour is observed when the impression position
is moved from the corner to the centre of a grid. However, for
the longer front time this reduction is not significant, decreas-
ing the impedance only to around 80% of the value measured at
the corner. The prevalence of low frequency components for the
waves presenting long front-time, responsible for approaching the
impedance value to that of the low-frequency resistance, explains
this fact.
For a given front-time, the movement from the corner
to the centre of the grid causes a reduction of length of
electrode available for current dissipation in the soil (seen
from the position of current impression on the grid). Con-
sidering that, for a constant front-time, the effective length
has a defined value, this is equivalent to reduce the elec-
trode length and, therefore, to displace the impulse coefficient
towards the left region of the graph, where it tends to
decrease.
Most impedances have values higher than the low frequency
resistance (6.5 ). This result is consistent with the predictions
of Ref. [1] for low resistivity soils and electrodes longer than the
effective length. Indeed, the values of grounding impedance sig-
nificantly larger than the low frequency resistance for the two
front times shorter than 1 ␮s indicate that the effective length
is shorter than the length of electrodes available for current dis-
persion to the soil from the current injection point. However, in
3 of 12 cases, the impedance is smaller than the low-frequency
resistance. This happens only for the longer front-time (4 ␮s)
at the grid centre and side and for the 2 ␮s only at the grid
centre position. In these three cases, the impulse coefficient is
displaced to the region on the left in the above graph. The
finding of impulse impedances smaller than the low-frequency
grounding resistance in these cases can be explained by a combi-
nation of long front-times, responsible for increasing the effective
length, and the equivalent diminution of the electrode length
available for current dispersion (due to the movement of the
current-impression position from the corner to the centre of the
grid).
The comparison of Fig. 4(a) and (b) reveals an interesting
aspect. The increase of the impulse coefficient above unity is
usually attributed to inductive effect that is larger for longer elec-
trodes. This is effect is shown clearly in the voltage and current
curves of Fig. 4(b) obtained for a current of 700-ns front-time
by the advance of the whole voltage wavefront in relation to
the current one. All the results, except those obtained for the
shortest front-time (150 ns), show a similar relative profile for
the voltage and current waves. However, Fig. 4(a) shows a dif-
ferent profile that is specific of the 150 ns front-time: there is
practically no displacement between the current and voltage wave-
fronts.
97
Apparently, this is an unexpected result, since the decrease
in the front-time increases the frequency content of the wave.
Thus, the inductive effect would be expectedly more pronounced
leading to a further advance of the voltage wave in relation
to the current in comparison with the result obtained for the
700-ns front-time. Different from such expectations, it seems
that for very short front-time (and, therefore, very high frequency
components) the wave impedance of the current and voltage
waves propagating along the electrode can be approximated by a
surge impedance given by the square root of the ratio of the per
unit length inductance and capacitance of the electrode. Since
this surge impedance is a real number, the voltage and current
waves should show no displacement at the wavefront, such as
in Fig. 4(a).
In general the results of this paper confirm the qualitative
behaviour found in the measurements and analyses presented
in [7,15–18]. Indeed it was worthy developing these new results
using current waves with much shorter front-time, about 150 ns,
since the propagation effects were more pronounced and made
the results more significant to develop the presented analyses.
Also the results obtained for currents with longer front-times
(4 ␮s) that are representative of real first-stroke return currents
were worthy and denoted specific interesting results, such as
the finding of impulse impedance values smaller than the low-
frequency resistance for the impression of currents at the grid
centre.
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