Investigating the transient performance of grounding systems subject to lightning (impulse or impulse superimposed sinewave) is valuable for protecting the power system and maintaining the system operation. In this work, the grounding system's impedance is computed when an impulse superimposed sinewave is applied to the grounding grid's proposed lumped circuit and grounding system can be simulated as an inductance in series with resistance, and all of them are in parallel with capacitance based on Thione's assumption. Several variables were investigated to study their effects on the grounding system's behavior. The variables were the soil resistivity, soil permittivity, main wire length, grid conductor radius, grid side length, grid configurationand its mesh number. The grounding system configuration varied between square and rectangular shapes, which connects to the protecting rod via the main wire conductor. A 3.69 kA peak of impulse current was applied to avoid soil ionization. The results indicated the performance of the grounding system when subjecting to impulse current.
SOIL IONIZATION DUE TO HIGH PULSE TRANSIENT CURRENTS LEAKED BY EARTH ELECTRODES