MEASUREMENT OF EARTH

RESISTANCE

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Design of Earthing System…
 Purpose of earthing……
 Safety of the living beings around the
vicinty of the substation
 Proper functioning of the protection
system under fault condition
 To limit the touch and step potential
within tolerable limits

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Human Safety
Current Range Effects on Humans

 1 mA Threshold of perception
 1-6 mA Let go currents
 9-25 mA Pain full, hard to let go
 25-60 mA Muscular contractions
 60-100 mA Ventricular fibrillation

0.116
Maximum Body Current: Ik = for t = .03s to 3s
√t

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Soil Resistivity Measurement
Wenner Four-Pin Method:

Four probes are driven into the earth along a

straight line, at equal distances ‘a’ apart , driven
to a depth ‘b’. The voltage between the two inner
(potential, V) electrodes is then measured and
divided by the current between the two outer
(current, I) electrodes to give a value of
resistance R.

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MEGGER MEASUREMENT

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Soil Resistivity Measurement
Then,
4aR
a = ______
1+ 2a - a_
(a2+4b2) (a2+b2)
where,
a is the apparent resistivity of the soil in -m
R is the measured resistance in 
a is the distance between adjacent electrodes in
metres
b is the depth of the electrodes in m

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Conductor Size Calculation…
The area of the conductor of earthing mat is given
by:

If . (tc.r.r.104/Tcap)
Ac2 =
ln {1+ (Tm-Ta)/(K0+Ta)}
where,

If is the symmetrical fault current in KA (rms),

the maximum current that would flow in any
section of the earthing system

tc is the duration of fault current in sec.

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Conductor Size Calculation…
r is the co-efficient of linear expansion of the
earthinging conductor

r is the resistivity of the earthing conductor in - cm at

reference temperature, Tr
Tcap is the thermal capacity factor of the earthing
conductor in Joules/ cm2/ 0C

Tr is the reference temperature=200C

K0 = [(1/r) - Tr]

Ta is the ambient temperature

Tm is the maximum allowable temperature for joints

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Calculation of resistance of
the earthing grid
1 1 1
RG=. + 1+
LM (20xAe) 1+h(20/Ae)

Where,

Ae is the area of the ground mat.

h is the depth of burried conductor
LM is the length of the total buried conductor

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Calculation of tolerable touch potential…

Etouch = (1000+1.5xCsxs ).(0.116/ts)

Estep = (1000+6.0xCsxs ).(0.116/ts)

Where,
ts is the duration of shock current &
Cs is the surface layer derating factor and is given by:
0.09 (1- /s)
Cs = 1 –
2hs+0.09
 is the soil resistivity of the substation
s is the surface layer (gravel) resistivity

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Calculation of attainable touch potential…
The attainable touch (mesh) potential is calculated
by the following expression;

. Km. Ki. IG
Em =
LM
Where,

Km is the spacing factor for mesh voltage

Ki is the correction factor for grid geometry
LM is the effective length of the burried earthing
conductor
IG is the maximum grid current

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Calculation of attainable step potential…

The attainable step potential is calculated by the following

. Ks. Ki. IG
Es =
LS
Where,
Ks is the spacing factor for step voltage
Ki is the correction factor for grid geometry and
LS is the effective length of LC+LR for step voltage in
metres
IG is the maximum grid current

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For Safe design….

Em<Etouch &
Es<Estep
Etransfered(=IG.RG) should be
within limit

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