Effective Impulse Impedances of Deeply Driven Grounding Electrodes

This paper presents the characteristics of transient and effective impulse impedances for deeply driven grounding electrodes used in soil with high resistivity or in downtown areas. The laboratory test associated with the time domain performance of grounding piles subjected to a lightning stroke current has been carried out using an actual-sized model grounding system. The ground impedances of the deeply driven ground rods and grounding pile under impulse currents showed inductive characteristics, and the effective impulse ground impedance owing to the inductive component is higher than the power frequency ground impedance. Both power frequency ground impedance and effective impulse ground impedance decrease upon increasing the length of the model grounding electrodes. Furthermore, the effective impulse ground impedances of the deeply driven grounding electrodes are significantly amplified in impulse currents with a rapid rise time. The reduction of the power frequency ground impedance is decisive to improve the impulse impedance characteristics of grounding systems.