IEEJ TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

IEEJ Trans 2015; 10: 249255

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI:10.1002/tee.22080

Paper

Study of Reducing Ground Resistance for Transmission Tower on Rocky

Mountain Tops with Constrained Area
Tingfang Yanga , Non-member
Wei Qiu , Non-member
Jinglu Li , Non-member

An effective device to reduce the earth resistance of grounding systems for power transmission towers on rocky mountain
tops with high soil resistivity and constrained area is proposed in this paper. In these scenarios, conventional methods such as
using horizontal electrodes to reduce ground resistance require more space and fine-grained soil for backfill. These methods
are not applicable to scenarios where the ground consists of rock or crushed stone. To tackle such limitations, we propose an
effective approach with less space and soil requirements. Based on the steady electric current field theory and the electrostatic
field, the proposed approach designs a central grounding system by a special steel reinforcement cage. The layout of the cage
is strictly based on theoretical calculations. The resistance of the central grounding system can be obtained by calculation and
measurement. Results show that this scheme can reduce ground resistance effectively in comparison with the traditional method of
imbedding horizontal radial electrodes in high-resistivity soil on mountain tops where space is limited and excavation conditions
are poor. The proposed method has also been validated in practical applications. 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of
Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Keywords: ground resistance, high soil resistivity, constrained area, the steady electric current field, a central grounding system

Received 12 May 2014; Revised 29 August 2014

1. Introduction length of 30 m, in at least 0.5 m depth of earth, to decrease the

Nowadays, extreme weather occurs frequently, accompanied
by more and more lightning activity. Owing to randomness and
complexity of lightning activities in the atmosphere [1,2], the
lightning trip-out rate and power supply outage caused by lightning
strikes on transmission lines rise in large power grids. But a low
resistive path to earth can safely pass the extremely high voltage
and currents of lightning into the ground [35]. Therefore, the
lightning protection effects of transmission lines are related to
their ground resistance [6]. It is the main way of reducing tower
ground resistance to prevent flashover and decrease lightning strike
tripping electrical power systems [5,7]. However, many locations
of transmission towers in mountain regions with more stones and
thinner soil have high soil resistivity. According to investigations,
the soil resistivity changes over very large range of 10006000
.m in the rocky mountain regions of South China, as shown as
in Fig. 1, where excavation conditions are very poor.
The transmission line from Houshi to Quanzhou in Fujian
province operates at 500 kV. The terrain of its tower foundation
construction is full of stones with less cohesive soil and has high
soil resistivity, as shown as in Fig. 2. The soil resistivity is about
2800 .m. Most of these regions are full of stones with less
soil, especially on mountain tops, where the space is limited, the
excavation conditions are very poor, and soil resistivity is high. In
many cases, it is difficult for such places to use traditional methods
such as installing horizontal earth electrodes having a minimum
a
Correspondence to: Tingfang Yang. E-mail: yangtingfang@126.com
* School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Changsha University
of Science and Technology, 960, 2nd Section, Wanjiali South RD,
Changsha, Hunan, P.R.China, 410004
** Zhuhai Electric Power Company
Project supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science
of China (Grant No. 61233008).
ground resistance for transmission line towers [8,9].
Some general ways using a resistance reducer or local soil
replacement can hardly work stably in the long term. Therefore,
lightning strike accidents occur frequently due to the high ground
resistance of transmission towers. To maintain safe and reliable
operation of the power system, the design of transmission tower
ground grids in limited, high-soil-resistivity regions is very impor-
tant. In general, the lower the ground resistance, the safer the
system [10]. This paper proposes an effective method to solve this
problem.
2. Central Grounding System for Transmission
Tower
Because traditional methods face many problems, an effective
central grounding system will be designed that can reduce ground
resistance effectively for transmission tower foundation in a rocky
area. This method avoids the problems of traditional methods
such as not having enough soil and space. It combines a steel
reinforcement cage around the transmission tower foundation with
a certain proportion of a resistance reduction agent. The structure
designed looks very compact. To prevent current from passing
across the towers down lead wires to the foundation when
measuring ground resistance, an insulating layer of felt paper
is installed around the tower foundation. The felt paper is used
to avoid the connection between the tower foundation resistance
and the resistance of the grounding system. This method takes
less space and soil on rocky peaks. Many problems while using
horizontal radial electrodes to reduce ground resistance are thereby
solved [11]. The structure of the central grounding system is shown
in Fig. 3. It looks like a cubic cage. In theory, the cage should be
circular. But the cube-shaped cage is usually used because of the
convenience of welding.

2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 T. YANG, W. QIU, AND J. LI
Fig. 1. Rocky mountain regions with poor excavation conditions
Fig. 2. Excavated stratum of transmission tower
As shown in Fig. 3, the gap between the tower foundation
and the resistance reduction agent around the reinforcement cage
is filled with clay. After completion of the cage placement,
backfilling soil for the soil ditch should not have inclusive
stone [12], building rubbish, and so on. The soil from outsourcing
should not be corrosive and backfilling should be compacted in
layers [13]. Four sides of the cage consist of square meshes made
of round steel tubes. These tubes will be welded by lap welding.
Its lapping length must be such that the steel tubes will be at least
7 times its diameter. The cage (all stainless steel materials) will
have a burial depth of the top more than 0.8 m. The cage should be
connected by separate grounding electrodes with grounding trunk
at two and more different points. Unless otherwise specified, welds
for intersecting weld seams shall make contact at the intersection
point between cross tubes. Because of the differences in tower
structures, the center line of tower foundation may be at a certain
angle with the vertical direction. For example, in a high-voltage
transmission tower, a certain angle is provided between tower pillar
and vertical direction due to its height and weight and for better
support.
To lower the ground resistance effectively, a highly efficient
bentonite resistance reducing agent is added outside the reinforcing
cage in Fig. 3. Thus a current diffusion layer is formed to
further decrease the resistance of the concentrated grounding
connection. Ground resistance has a direct bearing on the thickness
of the resistance reducing agent [1416]. The bentonite resistance
reducing agent must be an anticorrosion material. Selection of the
resistance reducing agent plays an important role in the design
of ground resistance reduction for transmission towers. GPF-94a
bentonite resistance reducing agent is chosen in this case. Its
250
Tower foundation
Steel reinforcement cage
Resistance reducing agent
Felt paper
Backfilling soil
Grounding electrodes
Foundation chassis
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of central grounding system
steel corrosion rate is 0.00049 mm/year, which far less than the
effect of soil corrosion on steel grounding electrodes. Thus the
theoretical service life for the grounding device may be more than
100 years.
Several grounding electrodes are embedded around the rein-
forcing cage, as shown in Fig. 3. These electrodes are used for
collecting ground current from or dissipating ground current into
the earth. The cage bars welded together for this installation instead
of a metal cylinder can cost less.
In Fig. 3, the ground resistance of the grounding system is
related to the soil resistivity, grounding body size, the amount
of resistance reducing agent, and the burial depth of the ground
body. The value of ground resistance can be calculated based on
steady electric current field and the electrostatic field theory.
3. Calculation Theory Based on Electrostatic
Simulation
As is known, the distribution of the steady electric current field
is similar to that of the electrostatic field with the same boundary
conditions. A steady electric current field means the current density
vector does not change with time. The current density of the
steady electric current field and the electric field strength of the
electrostatic field have the same physical expression, and both
the electric current field and the electrostatic field have the same
solution when their boundary conditions are identical. Since the
steady electric current field is easy to construct and measure, the
electrostatic field can be investigated based on the steady electric
current field. This method is called electrostatic simulation [17,18].
The central grounding system is designed according to the theory
of electrostatic simulation. Its ground resistance at industrial
frequency can be calculated because of its low frequency according
to the steady current field theory.
In electromagnetic theory, the magnitude of the current density
 is given by the limit, in A/m2 , can be expressed as
I dI dq
|| = lim = = (1)
S 0 S dS dtdS
where dS is a surface element of the surface S , and dI is
the total current flowing through the cross-section area dS . A
IEEJ Trans 10: 249255 (2015)
 REDUCING GROUND RESISTANCE FOR TOWER WITH CONSTRAINED AREA

Mirror
image

h
earth

Ground
cylinder

Fig. 5. Mirror image effect of cylinder

Fig. 4. Electric field analysis outside of a cylinder
4. Calculation of Ground Resistance for Central
common approximation to the current density assumes that the Grounding System
current simply is proportional to the electric field intensity based
on Maxwells equations, expressed by In order to improve calculation accuracy of ground resistance
for the ground metal cylinder, the average potential method is

= E (2) adopted in (3) with rc substituting for PN , Z substituting for ZN ,
and integral from Z = 0 to L according to (3). Then the average
where E is the electric field intensity and is the electrical potential UN of the metal cylinder is obtained by (4):
conductivity. 
Consider a vertical metal cylinder installed in a homogeneous dUN
UN =
material with a permittivity , as depicted in Fig. 4. L
 L 
Then the potential of a point N with cylindrical coordinates I Z + Z 2 + rc2
(PN , , ZN ) outside of the cylinder is calculated as follows based = ln  dZ (4)
4 L2 0 Z L + (Z L)2 + rc2
superposition principles for electric potential and (2):
  

Generally speaking, the ground resistance of a vertical metal I rc L + L2 + rc2  r 2

c
cylinder embedded in the earth is comprised of three kinds = + ln 1+
2 L L rc L
of resistance: the resistance of the metal cylinder, the contact
resistance between the cylinder and the soil, and the resistance where as the reciprocal of is the soil resistivity in .m.
of the soil. The first resistance can be made relatively small with Therefore, the ground resistance R of the vertical metal cylinder
respect to the last two and can be neglected for all practical embedded in the earth is calculated as
purposes. Thus the vertical metal cylinder can be thought of as
an equipotential body, and the electric potential at every point in UN
R=
the space outside it can be obtained from (3): I
  

 rc L + L2 + rc2  r 2
c
UN = Edr = + ln 1+ (5)
2 L L rc L

If the vertical metal cylinder embedded in the earth has a burial
= dr
depth h of the top, the calculation of ground resistance will also be
 influenced by mirror image effect, as shown in Fig. 5. Neglecting
IdZ
= (3) the boundary effect of the two ends of the metal cylinder, the
2 P 
ground resistance of the cylinder may be calculated based on the
 L
I dZ methods of mirror image theory, average current, and average
=  voltage as follows [19,20]:
2 0 (ZN Z )2 + PN2   

L + L2 + rc2 2h + L  r 2
 2 rc c
R= + ln 1+ (6)
I ZN + ZN2 + PN2 L L rc 4h + L L
= ln 
4 L Z L + (Z L)2 + P 2 In (6), h is the burial depth of the metal cylinder in meters.
N N N
If ground resistance of transmission towers cannot meet the
As we know, Coulombs law is fully accurate only when the requirements in high soil resistivity area such as a rocky mountain
objects are stationary, and remains approximately correct only for area with crushed stones and so on, a resistance reducing agent
slow movement. These conditions are collectively known as the is usually used. Thus a factor k describing the effect of the
electrostatic approximation. It means that the electrostatics fields resistance reducing agent should be considered when computing
do not require the absence of magnetic fields or electric currents. the resistance of the grounding system using the formula
Rather, if magnetic fields or electric currents do exist, they may  

not change with time, or, in the worst case, they may change with 2k r L + L2 + r 2 2h + L  r 2
time only very slowly. Because the power frequency 50 Hz of R= + ln 1+ (7)
L L r 4h + L L
ground resistance is very low, the electrical power frequency of
ground current field can be approximately thought of as a steady In (7), k is the resistance reducing ratio and related to the layer
current field and solved by electrostatic field. depth of the resistance reducing agent. The relation between k and

251 IEEJ Trans 10: 249255 (2015)

 T. YANG, W. QIU, AND J. LI

a earth

r=0.64a
a
h
L a

L
a

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of equivalent flank area for the central

grounding system
Fig. 7. Diagram of the central grounding system

the layer depth of GPF-94a bentonite resistance reducing agent is

Table I. Ground resistance of the central grounding system
given on the basis of the actual value from experience by
Measured Calculated Error
K = 0.0286d + 1.0707 (8)
(.m) L(m) a(m) h(m) value () value () rate (%)
where d is the layer depth of GPF-94a bentonite resistance reduc- 500 2 1.5 0.6 77.3 71.23 8.3
ing agent. Equation (8) is based upon correlating measurements 1000 2.5 2 0.8 112.5 104.9 7.6
in the manufacture of GPF-94a bentonite resistance reducing 1500 2.5 2.5 1 124.9 116 7.5
agent. 2000 2.5 2.5 1.2 148.0 141.47 4.6
The transmission towers normally have four or more legs 3000 3 3 1.4 188.2 179.33 4.8
connected by lattice braces. For a transmission tower with four 3500 3 3.5 1.6 177.4 167.67 5.8
legs, the ground resistance of its grounding device can be derived 4000 3 3.5 1.6 203.5 191.62 6.2
from the foundation resistances of four legs individually named as
RA , RB , RC , and RD in parallel as follows:

R = (RA //RB //RC //RD ) (9)

where represents shielding effectiveness to each other for the

grounding electrodes. In general, the shielding factor of the
central grounding system proposed in this paper has a value 1.5
according to IEEE 81 and field test.

5. Simplified Model for Application

In order to simplify the model for application and to facilitate the
building work of the grounding system, a cube-shaped reinforce-
ment cage is adopted to substitute the cylinder-shaped structure for
the central grounding system. Based on the rule of girth in equal
size, the relation between the radius r of a circle and a side length
a of a square is given by
2a
r= = 0.64a (10)
which is shown in Fig. 6 about the equivalent flank area of a cube-
shaped reinforcement cage with a side length a and a cylinder-
shaped reinforcement cage of radius r. Both of them have the
same length L.
6. Simulation and Experimental Results
The purpose of the ground system experiment and test is to
determine the effectiveness of the central grounding system. The
central grounding system was embedded in the earth with a burial
depth h of the top, as shown in Fig. 7.
In this figure, a cube-shaped reinforcement cage with a side
length a was embedded in the earth with earth resistivity . L is
the total length of the cage. In this experiment, the shielding factor
was 1.5, and the resistance reducing ratio k of GPF-94a bentonite
resistance reducing agent was taken as 0.642. Using (7)(10) to
calculate the grounding resistance of the central grounding system
with different earth resistivity , side a, length L, depth h, the
results were obtained as shown in Table I.
Fig. 8. Structure-making procedure of the central grounding
system
Figure 8 shows the physical layout and structure-making proce-
dure of the central grounding system. Some workers were welding
the cube-shaped reinforcement cage. A cube-shaped reinforcement
cage was welded around one of the transmission tower foundation.
When all work was finished, the three-point method was adopted
to make ground resistance measurements. The measured values of
the ground resistance for the central grounding system are also
shown in Table I.
The results in Table I reveal that the measured values are very
close to the calculated values. This indicates that the error rates
are in the range 39%, much lower than 10%, which meets the
requirements of engineering field work. Figure 9 shows errors
between the measured grounding resistance and the calculated
values for different earth resistivity.
7. Application Examples
The central grounding system was adopted for the 17th trans-
mission tower foundation of the HoushiQuanzhou transmission
line in Fujian province. This transmission tower foundation is on a

252 IEEJ Trans 10: 249255 (2015)

 REDUCING GROUND RESISTANCE FOR TOWER WITH CONSTRAINED AREA

250

200
calculated
150 values
resistance,

measured
earth

100 values

50

0
500 1000 1500 2000 3000 3500 4000
r,.m
Fig. 12. Installation of the GPF-94a bentonite resistance reducing
Fig. 9. Errors between the measured grounding resistance and the agent
calculated values

Fig. 13. A hinny team carrying the resistance reducing agent

Fig. 10. A welded cube-shaped reinforcement cage

Fig. 14. Project team measuring the ground resistance

the central grounding system. Figure 10 shows that a cube-shaped

Fig. 11. Several welded grounding electrodes at two ends of the
cage
mountain top. The area is full of stones with little soil and short of
space to imbed horizontal radial electrodes in the earth to reduce
ground resistance. Its excavation conditions are very poor. The
transmission tower foundation had a high ground resistance of
75.8 . It was larger than the required value 30 . Lightning
strikes this transmission tower 910 times a year, which often
causes line tripping and service interruption. Therefore, the ground
system of this transmission tower foundation was required to be
modified. The central grounding system was designed to reduce
its ground resistance. The transmission tower had four legs: Leg
A, Leg B, Leg C, and Leg D. Each leg was arranged to install
reinforcement cage was welded around one of the legs of the trans-
mission tower foundation.
Figure 11 shows that several grounding electrodes were welded
at two ends of the reinforcing cage to dissipate ground current into
the earth.
Figure 12 shows that the GPF-94a bentonite resistance reducing
agent was clamped in a follow board to reduce the ground
resistance.
The mountain top is very high and the traffic conditions are
very poor. So the GPF-94a bentonite resistance reducing agent
was carried by a hinny team, as shown in Fig. 13.
Figure 14 shows our project team measuring the ground resis-
tance of the transmission tower foundation.
The ground resistance of four legs A, B, C, and D of the
transmission tower foundation is shown in Table II. In Table II,
R is the calculated value of the ground resistance and R is
the measured value. Figure 15 shows that the measured ground

253 IEEJ Trans 10: 249255 (2015)

 T. YANG, W. QIU, AND J. LI

Table II. Grounding resistance of the 17th transmission tower Measured one year ago
foundation
600
17th transmission tower foundation

Step voltage (mv)

500
Leg of Whole 400
foundation Leg A Leg B Leg C Leg D resistance 300
200
(.m) 3510 2898 3062 2735
100
L(m) 2 2 2 2
a(m) 3.5 3.5 3 3 4
h(m) 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2
d (cm) 17 14 12 30 x-axis (m) 0
k 0.6 0.67 0.73 1 2 4
2
R() 52.60 54.0 74.69 91.39 24.24 4 0
2
R  () 57.0 59.1 81.2 98.7 26.6 Adopting the central 4 y-axis (m)
Error rate (%) 8.21 9.54 8.70 8.0 9.7 grounding system

Fig. 16. Distribution of the step voltages of the earth surface of

120 17th transmission tower foundation

100 rate is below 10%. This can meet the requirements of engineering
application.
earth resistance,

80 The technology of the central grounding system was also

calculated
values used by Guangdong power grid Corporation, Guangxi power
60
measured
grid corporation, EHV Power Transmission Company of China,
values Southern Grid in China, and it solved a lot of difficulties of the
40
grounding system in high-resistivity soil on mountain tops with
constrained area.
20

0 8. Conclusions
3510 2898 3062 2735
r,.m
Fig. 15. The grounding resistance of four legs and calculating
errors
resistance of the central grounding system for each leg of the
transmission tower foundation was larger than the calculated value.
From Table II, the whole grounding resistance of the transmis-
sion tower foundation was 26.6  by measurement. It was lower
than 30 , and so met the grounding requirements for a trans-
mission tower. The measured value was also much less than the
value 75.8  of the whole grounding resistance measured 1 year
ago. In other words, the whole grounding resistance of the 17th
transmission tower foundation was reduced from 75.8 to 26.6  by
the central grounding system. The central grounding system could
reduce the grounding resistance by 35.1% (75.8 100/26.26 =
35.1) on a mountain top with with high soil resistivity and con-
strained area.
To do an in-depth comparison, the step voltage of the 17th
transmission tower foundation was measured twice according to
IEEE Std 81-1983, IEEE Guide for Measuring Earth Resistiv-
ity, Ground Impedance, and Earth Surface Potentials of a Ground
System. One measurement was done 1 year before the founda-
tion modification. The other was done after the modification. The
data of two measurements was drawn by MATLAB, as shown in
Fig. 16. The figure includes two curved surfaces. The top curved
surface is the step voltage measured before the foundation modifi-
cation, and the bottom curved surface is that after the modification.
The figure shows that the step voltage decreases greatly and its
distribution has been reformed after 17th transmission tower foun-
dation was modified and the central grounding system was used.
After the installation of the central grounding system, the
lightning withstanding level and power supply reliability of the
transmission line have increased greatly. From Figs 9 and 15, the
calculated values were always smaller than the measured values for
the ground resistance of the central grounding system and the error
A method of reducing the ground resistance for transmission
towers against lightning strikes was proposed. It was not only
economical but also remarkably effective in mountain areas. It
was designed by a central grounding system based on the steady
electric current field theory and the electrostatic field. It could
reduce the grounding resistance to below 40% on a mountain top.
It makes the tower foundation ground compact and take up less
space and soil than traditional methods.
The proposed method is very suitable for transmission struc-
tures located on rocky mountains in high receptivity soils with
constrained area. For comparison, both the traditional method of
imbedding horizontal radial electrodes and the central grounding
system were tested. Results showed the effectiveness of the central
grounding system. In actual practice, the central grounding system
was also proved feasible and validated.
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255
Tingfang Yang (Non-member) was born in China in 1975. He
received the B.S., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from
Huazhong University of Science and Techno-
logy, Wuhan, China, in 1998, 2001, and 2008,
respectively. He worked as a Research Assis-
tant with the Department of Electrical Engineer-
ing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in 2007.
He is currently an Associate Professor with the
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Changsha Uni-
versity of Science and Technology, Hunan Province. His research
interests include grounding technology, lightning protection, over-
voltage and insulation coordination, and condition monitoring and
fault diagnosis of electrical equipment.
Wei Qiu (Non-member) was born in China in 1983. He received
the B.S. degree from the School of Electrical and
Information Engineering, Changsha University
of Science and Technology, Hunan Province,
China, in 2010. He is currently with the Zhuhai
Electric Power Company. His research interests
include high voltage and insulation technology.
Jinglu Li (Non-member) was born in China in 1955. He received
the B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,
China, in 1982 and 2004, respectively. He is
currently working as an Professor with the
School of Electrical and Information Engineer-
ing, Changsha University of Science and Tech-
nology, China. He is a Masters tutor. He is also
a commissioner of High Voltage Committee of Chinese Society of
Electrical Engineering and an academic leader in High voltage and
insulation technique field. His research interests include grounding
technology, lightning protection, over voltage and insulation coor-
dination, and condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of electrical
equipment.
IEEJ Trans 10: 249255 (2015)