Dr.

Muhammad Kamran
Waqar Hassan
(NTDC)

Design and Implementation of Efficient

Portable Grounding System for Electric
Machines

Objective
Justification
Problem Statement
Main Contribution
Design and Implementation
Results and Applications
Comparison
Conclusion

To improve the traditional grounding concepts by

focusing on the design and implementation of
portable grounding system used for different
electrical equipments, substation and portable
machines.
A practical designing of portable grounding system
to make it transportable, efficient, reusable, cost
beneficent, compact, semi prepared, easy to install.
Cost analysis and comparison of this portable
grounding system with already existing systems.
Implementation of this system to develop portable
shielding system.

Already Existed grounding systems are not portable

If grounding is required in hard soil then
requirement of deep pits to place vertical rods is
very complex and costly.
Once the previous systems are established then we
cannot change the resistance according to end user
requirement.
Large area is required for preparation of grounding
channel, in order to fulfill Wenners conditions.
Spacing between electrodes >> Depth of electrodes

The grounding channel resistance of very large electrical

substations (utilities) should be 1 Ohm or less.
For shielding system design to protect equipments from
electromagnetic waves the grounding resistance must be below 4
Ohms.
For commercial and industrial substations the recommended
ground resistance is 5 Ohms or less.
Many equipment vendors and communication companies require
ground systems of less than 3 Ohms resistance.
For Lightning Protection system, the resistance measured at any
point should not exceed 10 ohms
Conventional rod method required large and complex grounding
channel to fulfill required resistance level especially in rocky areas.
A practical efficient and cost beneficent grounding system is
required to eliminate all these problems [1].

In this grounding system different sizes blocks has been prepared by

mixing low resistive materials and water in a specified ratio
A copper plate is placed inside this block and a copper rope is attached
with copper plate which comes out from block for making connections
with other blocks
These blocks have been laid inside earth pits in which clay is formed
using specified amount of water
A number of blocks have been attached together to obtained the
desired value of earth resistance
Experiments have been performed for different combination of blocks
having different sizes and results are used to select a suitable
combination for a desired value
This portable grounding system has also been compared with existing
methods.

Practical designing of Portable Grounding Blocks.

Measurement of resistivity
Implementation of Grounding Channels
Measurement of resistance of channels
Implementation of rod method at same resistivity
Comparison based analysis of portable grounding
system and conventional rod method

1.

Preparation of Cage
The first step is to prepare cage in which block material is inserted to make it
compact
This cage is made of angle iron and steel bar. Due to the strength provided by
this cage, block can be easily transported from one place to another without
damages.
2. Composition of Material for Block
The nature of soil may or may not be feasible for creation of grounding
system
It is sometimes required to use suitable material for grounding. These
materials like graphite[2] , layered chalcogenides [3], perovskites [4], artificial
super lattices [5], some biological tissues [6], polymer composites [7] are used
in grounding system
The selection of material depends upon availability and cost of selected
material. Different sizes of blocks have been prepared by combining Coal,
Salt, Sand, Crush and Cement in (4:4:4:4:1) and sludge is prepared using
required amount of water.

3.

Insertion of copper Plate and Conductor

A copper plate of specified size is used inside block. This
plate is placed inside the cage and two copper ropes having
length of 2 meter are welded through this plate
These ropes come out from each block for attachment of
these blocks with each other in order to attain required
resistance
This cage is filled with sludge prepared by selected earthing
material
After getting dry it becomes a compact block. This block may
be used to provide grounding channel to any equipment.

For larger dimension of block the copper plate dimension is also increased. It
also increases the weight and cost of the blocks. Transportation and handling
of large size blocks is difficult so small size blocks are preferred.

Two types of soil have been selected for performing

experiments.
1. Soft soil(300 m)
2. Rocky soil (650 m)
The resistivity of soil has been measured through Four
Pole Method (Wenner Method)

Attachment of blocks having different dimensions with

each other will create grounding channel.
The measurement of resistance will be done using Two
Pole Method.
Two spikes one is current spike and other is potential
spike are erected five meters and ten meters away from
earth channel. Earth resistance meter is now connected
with channel and also with these spikes for resistance
measurement.
Results will be observed for grounding channel prepared
from different combination of blocks having different
dimensions.

 Channel

resistance measured for same blocks in Soft soil

Channel resistance measured for different blocks in soft
soil.
Channel resistance measured for different blocks in rocky
soil.
Three days experiments
First day experiments
Second day experiments
Third day experiments

Twelve blocks having four different dimensions 14 x 12 x

14, 14 x 10 x 14, 10 x 10 x 14 and 8 x 8 x 14 have
been laid inside earth pits having dimension 5 x 3 x 4 for
resistance measurements. Specified amount of water has
been provided inside these earth pits and clay is formed.
These blocks have been attached with each other. After
attachment of these blocks with each other a ground
channel is formed.
Two spikes one is current spike and other is potential spike
are also erected five meters and ten meters away from
earth channel. Earth resistance meter is now connected
with channel and also with these spikes for resistance
measurement. Following results have been observed for
different combination of blocks

Another experiment has been performed using eight

blocks having dimensions 18 x 18 x 12
These experiments have been performed in soft soil
and the resistivity measured by the author in test soil
is 350 .m.
These blocks have been laid inside earth pits having
dimensions 4 x 4 x 2
Specified amount of water has been provided inside
these earth pits and clay is formed. These blocks have
been attached with each other. After attachment of
these blocks with each other a ground channel is
formed.

In above experiments the amount of water provided

for preparing clay inside earth pits has not been
measured. In some area very small amount of water is
available especially in hard rocks and controlled
amount of water must be used for obtaining desired
resistance. Series of experiments have been performed
to measure the resistance of channel prepared by
blocks in hard rocky area of Dhodak. The soil resistivity
measured in this area is 760 .m. The effect of life
time on resistance of blocks has also been observed by
performing experiments continuously for three days.

Three blocks having dimensions 14 x 12 x 14,

10 x 10 x 14 and 8 x 8 x 14 have been
passed through testing. These blocks have been
laid in earth pits in rocky area having size 2x3x4
for resistance testing. Now this time calculated
volume of water has been provided in discrete
interval of time and following results have been
observed for different combination and different
watering condition of blocks.

700 litters water has been again provided to each

earth pit and resistance of the block has been
measured again. The resistance of the block is reduced
by providing more water for forming clay, as shown in
table below.
It has been observed that resistance is reduced by
providing more and more water in pits. With the
passage of time the moisture around the blocks has
been increased.

 In

third and last day of experiment 700 litter water is again

provided to each earth pit and resistance has been
measured. Total 2100 litter water has been provided to
each earth pit from first day to till now. These blocks are
connected with earth resistance meter and measurements
are performed as show in table.
It has been observed that resistance is greatly reduced to
very low level by providing water to earth pits in discrete
intervals of time and using only two blocks at a time
resistance of 2.8 can be achieved in high resistivity soil. The
reduction in resistance is possible by connecting more
blocks and providing sufficient amount of water for
forming clay.

Implementation of Conventional Rod Method at

same locations having same resistivity.
Cost analysis of Portable grounding system and rod
method
Efficiency measurement for Portable grounding
system and rod method
Comparison

Two grounding channels are formed using four

copper rods connected with each other through
copper conductor and also four portable blocks in
soil having same resistivity .
Figure below shows practical implementation of
conventional rod method for grounding electric
machines.

Series of experiment has been performed using four

copper rods having length of 3.5 meter and diameter
of 0.5 meter. A single copper rod has the same weight
as that of copper plate having size 10" x 10" x
0.118".These experiments have been performed in
soft soil and the resistivity measured by the author in
test soil is 350 .m using four pole wenner method.
Following results have been observed for different
numbers of rods having voltage and current probes
distances 5 m and 10 m respectively.

Portable grounding system has been installed at

soil having same resistivity as in case of rod
method and comparison has been made. This
comparison is based on cost of material used and
labor charges for preparing earth pits and bores.

A Portable and compact grounding system has been

developed and validated based on experimental findings. The
earth resistance has been reduced to very low level using
limited number of blocks that have been prepared by author
In comparison with previous methods used for grounding,
practical designing of portable grounding system has not only
eliminated the complexity of previous methods but also
provide the advantages of easily transportable, Reusable, cost
efficient, compact, semi prepared, easy to install. This
grounding system may be shifted from one place to another
place as per requirement and if grounding is required in hard
soil then requirement of deep pits to place vertical rods is
also eliminated. Once this system is established then we can
change the resistance according to end user requirement.

The performance of grounding blocks can be improved

by using more efficient material for low earth
resistance and using large number of blocks. This
portable grounding method can also be used for
designing portable shielding system to protect our
machines from electromagnetic issues.

Instrument Transformers