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Lightning Electromagnetic Fields and Their Induced

Currents on Buried Cables. Part II: The Effect of a
Horizontally Stratified Ground
Javad Paknahad, Keyhan Sheshyekani, Senior Member, IEEE, Farhad Rachidi, Fellow, IEEE,
and Mario Paolone, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractWe use a finite element method (FEM) to evaluate the

effect of a horizontally stratified two-layer ground on underground
lightning electromagnetic fields and their induced currents on the
shield of buried cables. It is shown that the azimuthal component of
the magnetic field in the upper soil layer is affected by the soil stratification only when this layer is more conductive than the lower soil
layer. On the other hand, inside the lower soil layer, this component
is always affected by the soil stratification. The vertical electric field
in the upper soil layer is mainly determined by the conductivity of
the same layer in particular at close observation points. However,
this component inside a more conductive lower soil layer is identical to that corresponding to a homogeneous soil with the same
property of the lower soil layer. The horizontal electric field inside
a stratified ground always takes values in between the electric fields
corresponding to one-layer homogenous grounds. We also present
a comparison with available experimental data on induced currents of a shielded buried cable and show that, in agreement with
recent studies, taking the soil stratification into account allows to
improve the late-time response of the induced currents. We also
show that the horizontal stratification of soil may result, in some
cases, in an enhancement of the induced currents with respect to
the case of a homogeneous ground characterized by the electrical
properties of either of the two layers.
Index TermsCable modeling, finite element method (FEM),
horizontally stratified ground, induced currents, lightning electromagnetic fields.

I. INTRODUCTION
HERE has been a growing interest over the last decades in
the modeling of lightning interaction with overhead transmission lines and buried cables. The importance of this modeling stems from the fact that lightning electromagnetic fields
can induce severe voltage stress on power system equipment,
and in particular for distribution electrical systems that can result in insulation breakdown, line outages, and unsatisfactory

Manuscript received December 19, 2013; revised February 28, 2014; accepted
March 6, 2014.
J. Paknahad and K. Sheshyekani are with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 1983963113, Iran
(e-mail: javadpaknahad@gmail.com; k_sheshyekani@sbu.ac.ir).
F. Rachidi and M. Paolone are with the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech
nology [Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)], Lausanne 1015,
Switzerland (e-mail: farhad.rachidi@epfl.ch; mario.paolone@epfl.ch).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEMC.2014.2311926

power quality indices. In a similar way, lightning radiated fields

can induce large currents and voltages on nearby buried power
or communication cables. The induced disturbances can damage the cable insulations or affect the quality of the transmitted data. Hence, the calculation of the induced electromagnetic
transients on buried cables is also of great significance. In the
first developed models for calculating lightning induced voltages and currents on overhead lines and buried cables, the
ground was considered as a homogeneous lossy medium (e.g.,
see [1][4]). This assumption is, however, far from the physics
of the problem in the sense that the ground is usually composed of different horizontal or vertical layers. Hence, a precise evaluation of lightning-induced voltages and currents on
overhead lines and buried cables calls for a more accurate modeling of the ground inhomogeneity. The first effort to address
the effect of a multilayer ground on electromagnetic fields is
due Wait who used the concept of attenuation function and the
ground surface impedance for the calculation of vertical electric
field propagating over a horizontally stratified ground [5][8].
This theory was adopted by Cooray and Cummins [9] for the
evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields above a multilayered stratified ground. However, recent studies show that
the Waits formulation can only be used for the calculation of
vertical electric field at distances very far from the lightning
channel [10]. Recently, an efficient algorithm for the evaluation
of the exact expressions for the electromagnetic fields radiated
by a lightning return stroke channel above a horizontally stratified ground was presented by Delfino et al. [11]. Based upon
this algorithm, a simplified approach was presented by Shoory
et al. [12] for the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields
above a horizontal two-layer ground. More recently, Mimouni
et al. [13] used a finite difference time domain (FDTD) approach
to evaluate lightning electromagnetic fields above and inside a
horizontally stratified, two-layer ground. In their study, however, Mimouni et al. considered electromagnetic fields at very
close distances from the lightning channel base. Very recently,
lightning-induced currents on a buried cable in a two-layer soil
was analyzed by Paulino et al. [14] in which the horizontal electric field in the upper layer of a two-layer soil was calculated
using a simplified approach proposed previously by Barbosa
et al. [15] and the electromagnetic coupling was evaluated using the transmission line theory. The analysis presented in [14]
showed essentially that the early time response of the induced
current is determined by the first layer and its late-time response
by the second layer.

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Fig. 1. Geometry for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic fields in a

horizontally stratified ground.

Within this context, this paper focuses on the analysis of

the effect of a horizontal two-layer ground on the underground
lightning radiated electromagnetic fields at different distances
from the lightning channel base. Observation points inside the
upper and the lower soil layers are both considered. To the best
of our knowledge, this is the first time the effect of ground
stratification is considered in the characterization of lightning
underground fields at any distance from the lightning channel
base. The paper also analyzes the effect of a two-layer ground on
lightning-induced currents on shielded cables buried either in the
upper soil layer or in the lower soil layer. Note that the latter case
has not been yet discussed in the literature. To this aim, we use a
full-wave approach which is based on the finite element method
(FEM) solution of Maxwells equations. The developed model
allows both the evaluation of the lightning electromagnetic fields
and the induced currents on the shield of cables buried in a
horizontally stratified ground. Note that the effect of a vertically
stratified ground on the lightning electromagnetic fields and
the associated induced currents on buried shielded cables is
investigated in the companion paper (Paknahad et al., 2014).
The organization of the paper is as follows. In Section II, the
effect of a horizontally stratified two-layer ground on lightning
electromagnetic fields inside the ground is discussed. Section III
evaluates the effect of a horizontally stratified two-layer ground
on lightning-induced currents on the shield of a buried cable.
Finally, general conclusions are presented in Section IV.
II. EFFECT OF A HORIZONTALLY STRATIFIED TWO-LAYER
GROUND ON LIGHTNING ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
The geometry of the problem for calculating the lightning
electromagnetic fields is shown in Fig. 1. We consider a horizontally stratified two-layer ground inside which we aim at evaluating the lightning electromagnetic fields. In this configuration,
the upper soil layer and the lower soil layer are, respectively,
characterized by soil conductivity and relative permittivity of
(u , r u ) and (d , r d ). Details about the problem modeling including the lightning return stroke channel modeling, boundary

conditions, and the cable modeling are provided in the companion paper (Paknahad et al., 2014).
With reference to Fig. 1, we first evaluate the effect of a
horizontally stratified two-layer ground on the electromagnetic
fields generated by a lightning discharge. Simulations are carried
out for an upper soil layer depth of h = 2 m. The lightning returnstroke current is typical of subsequent strokes whose parameters
are given in the companion paper. To this aim, we present the
vertical and horizontal components of the electric field (i.e.,
Ez , Er ) and the azimuthal component of the magnetic field
(i.e., H ) under the ground surface. Simulations are done for
different conductivity combinations of soil layers; (u , d ) =
(0.01 S/m, 0.001 S/m) and (u , d ) = (0.001 S/m, 0.01 S/m)
assuming the same relative permittivity of r = 10 for both
layers. In each simulation case, the results are compared with
those obtained for one-layer homogeneous soils with the same
electrical characteristics as each of the two layers.
Note that in our simulations, we disregarded the effect of
frequency dependence of soil electrical parameters [16][19].
A. Underground Fields in the Upper Soil Layer
In this section, we present lightning electromagnetic fields at
a depth of 1 m inside the ground and in the upper soil layer (see
P1 in Fig. 1) at three observation points located at horizontal
distances of 50, 300, and 1000 m far from the lightning channel base. Figs. 24 show, respectively, the simulated azimuthal
magnetic field, vertical electric field, and horizontal electric
field. We also show in these figures the results associated with
homogeneous soils characterized by the electrical properties of
the upper soil layer and those of the lower soil layer, respectively. It is seen from these figures that, the soil stratification
markedly affects all the components of the lightning electromagnetic fields penetrating into the ground at any distance from
the lightning channel base. The following conclusions can be
drawn:
1) For the azimuthal magnetic field (see Fig. 2), when the upper soil layer is less conductive than the lower soil layer,
in particular at distances of 50 and 300 m, the effect of
conductivity of the upper soil layer prevails the effect of
soil stratification so that the azimuthal magnetic field is
nearly identical to the case of a homogeneous soil characterized by the upper soil layer conductivity. At 1 km, it can
be seen that the magnetic field for a horizontally stratified
ground features an oscillatory behavior in its early-time
response resulting in an enhancement of its peak magnitude. Similar effect which can be attributed to reflections
from the two layers interface has been observed for aboveground fields and reported in the literature (e.g., see [10]).
However, when the upper soil layer is more conductive
than the lower soil layer, the soil stratification tends to decrease the magnitude of the azimuthal magnetic field with
respect to the case of a homogeneous soil characterized
by the conductivity of the upper soil layer.
2) For the vertical electric field (see Fig. 3), when the upper
soil layer is more conductive than the lower soil layer,
the upper soil layer conductivity has the dominant effect

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Fig. 2. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at a depth of 1 m

inside a horizontal two-layer ground: (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r =
1000 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first
layer h = 2 m.

so that the soil stratification leads to the same results as

those related to a homogeneous soil characterized by the
conductivity of the upper soil layer [see Fig. 3(a)]. However, when the upper soil layer is less conductive than the
lower soil layer, the soil stratification leads to an oscillatory behavior and an enhancement in the magnitude of the
vertical electric field with respect to the case of a homogeneous soil characterized by the conductivity of the upper
soil layer [see Figs. 3(b) and (c)].
3) The horizontal electric field (see Fig. 4) in the presence of a
stratified ground takes a value in between those associated
with homogenous grounds (i.e., ground with the same
properties of the upper soil layer and the lower soil layer).
However, when the upper soil layer is less conductive
than the lower soil layer, this component is essentially
determined by the properties of the more conductive soil
layer, especially for its late-time response.
We have also computed the horizontal electric field considering different depths for the upper soil layer of h = 5, 10,
20, and 50 m (see Fig. 5). As shown in this figure, for early
times, the horizontal electric field tends to follow the same behavior as for the case of a homogeneous soil characterized by
the conductivity of the upper soil layer. As it can be seen from
Fig. 5, for an upper soil layer with depths of 5 and 10 m, the
horizontal electric field is affected by reflections arriving from
the lower soil layer before reaching its peak. For a depth of

Fig. 3. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at a depth of 1 m inside a

horizontal two-layer ground: (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r = 1000 m.
Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first layer
h = 2 m.

20 m, however, reflections from the lower soil layer affect only

the fields late-time response. Note that the polarity of the first
reflected wave depends on the reflection coefficient at the interface between the upper soil layer and the lower soil layer. As it
is seen from Fig. 5(d), the effect of soil stratification becomes
negligible when the upper soil layer has a depth of 50 m.
As discussed in [15], when the upper soil layer is more conductive than the lower soil layer, the first reflected wave has
the same polarity of the penetrating wave; otherwise, it takes an
opposite polarity. Due to this fact, as it is clearly seen in Fig. 5,
when the upper soil layer is more conductive, the first reflected
wave contributes constructively to the penetrating field leading
to an enhancement compared to the case of a homogenous soil
having the same property of the upper soil layer [see Fig. 5(a)].
In a similar way, when the upper soil layer is less conductive, the
reflected wave has an opposite polarity and results in a decrease
of the field magnitude compared to the case of a homogeneous
soil with the same electrical properties of the upper soil layer
[see Figs. 5(a) and (b)].
B. Underground Fields in the Lower Soil Layer
In this section, we evaluate the effect of a horizontal two-layer
ground on the underground lightning electromagnetic fields inside the lower soil layer at distances of 50 m, 300 m, and 1000 m
from the channel base. To this aim, the depth of the upper soil

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Fig. 4. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 1 m

inside a horizontal two-layer ground: (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r =
1000 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first
layer h = 2 m.

layer is assumed to be h = 2 m while the observation point

is located 5 m under the ground surface (see P2 in Fig. 1).
Fig. 6 shows the azimuthal component of the magnetic field.
The vertical and horizontal components of the electric field for
the same cases are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. From
these illustrations, the following conclusions can be made:
1) For the azimuthal magnetic field (see Fig. 6), the soil stratification tends to decrease the magnitude of the azimuthal
magnetic field with respect to the case of a homogeneous
soil characterized by the properties of the upper soil layer.
2) For the vertical and horizontal electric field components,
when the lower soil layer is more conductive, the soil stratification leads to the same results as those corresponding
to a homogeneous soil with the same property of the lower
soil layer (see Figs. 7 and 8). However, when the upper
soil layer is more conductive than the lower soil layer,
the fields take values in between the cases corresponding to homogenous grounds (i.e., ground with the same
properties of the upper and lower soil layers). These observations can be qualitatively justified by the fact that
as the soil layers become more conductive, they act as a
kind of shield preventing the field from penetrating into
the soil. This is confirmed by the results shown in Figs. 7
and 8 as the fields associated with the case of a homoge-

Fig. 5. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 1 m

inside a horizontal two-layer ground at r = 50 m. (a) h = 5 m, (b) h = 10 m,
(c) h = 20 m, and (d) h = 50 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent
strokes.

neous soil characterized by = 0.01 S/m take the lowest

magnitudes.
III. EFFECT OF A HORIZONTALLY STRATIFIED TWO-LAYER
GROUND ON INDUCED CURRENTS ON THE SHIELD
OF A BURIED CABLE
A. Comparison With Measurements
In this section, the effect of a horizontally stratified two-layer
ground on the induced currents on the shield of a buried cable is evaluated. To this aim, with reference to Fig. 9, we first
compare our results with measurement data presented in [3].
The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 10 for which
experimental results have been obtained at the International
Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) at Camp
Blanding, Florida, where currents induced by triggered and

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Fig. 6. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at a depth of 5 m

inside a horizontal two-layer ground: (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r =
1000 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first
layer h = 2 m.

natural lightning events were measured at both ends of the

shield of a buried coaxial power cable [3]. The cable length
is 133 m, and its shield is grounded at both terminations by
means of two grounding rods; one with a length of 12 m and
a diameter of 0.4 cm at the instrument station IS1, which is
equivalent to a dc ground resistance of 60 ; and the other with
a length of 24 m and a diameter of 0.4 cm at the instrument station IS2, which is equivalent to a dc ground resistance of 37 .
The inner conductor at both ends is open circuited. It is worth
noting that, since we use a full-wave solution of Maxwells
equations, any coupling mechanism is inherently taken into account. These include the coupling between the return stroke
channel and the buried cable as well as the conductive coupling
that might appear between the return stroke channel and the
grounding rods, in particular, at very close distances [20]. Note
that we disregarded the resistor of 50 through which the inner
conductor was connected to the shield. This is legitimate since
the induced current on the inner conductor is negligible compared to the induced current on the shield (see [3] and [21]).
To compare with the measurement data, induced currents on
the cable shield were calculated using the measured channelbase current waveform, which was represented using the sum of
two Heidlers functions whose parameters are given in Table I.
The channel-base current corresponds to a triggered lightning
event. The relative position of the triggered lightning discharge
and the buried cable is shown in Fig. 10. The current induced

Fig. 7. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at a depth of 5 m inside a

horizontal two-layer ground. (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r = 1000 m.
Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first layer h =
2 m.

on the cable shield at IS1 was evaluated using the adopted fullwave approach for two cases. (Details of the modeling can be
found in Section II of the companion paper.) First, we considered a homogeneous soil characterized by a soil conductivity of
= 0.0017 S/m (corresponding to the value inferred from the
measured dc grounding resistance of the ground rods and rod
geometry [3]). The obtained results, which are consistent with
those presented in [3] and [14], are presented in Fig. 11 (solid
red line), along with the measured waveform (solid black line).
It can be seen that the simulations corresponding to a homogeneous soil are in relatively good agreement with measured
data for their early times. However, their late-time response deviates from the experimental observations. On the same figure,
we have presented numerical simulations obtained considered a
two-layer model for the soil. The upper soil layer has a depth of
40 m (h = 40 m) characterized by a soil conductivity of u =
0.0017 S/m and a relative permittivity of r u = 10. The lower
soil layer is characterized by a conductivity d = 0.1 S/m and a
relative permittivity r d = 30.
The results are presented in the same figure (blue dotted
line). It can be seen that the two-layer model results in a much
better agreement with the measured waveform for its late-time
response. This finding has also been recently acknowledged
in [14].

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Fig. 9. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced current on the shield

of a buried cable in a horizontally stratified ground.

Fig. 8. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 5 m

inside a horizontal two-layer ground: (a) r = 50 m, (b) r = 300 m, and (c) r =
1000 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes. Depth of the first
layer h = 2 m.

B. Simulations for a Cable Buried in the Upper Soil Layer

Similar to the preceding Section, we consider a horizontally stratified two-layer ground characterized by a combination of upper and lower soil layers conductivities of (u , d ) =
(0.01 S/m, 0.001 S/m) and (u , d ) = (0.001 S/m, 0.01 S/m) assuming the same relative permittivity of r = 10 for both layers.
The simulations are done considering two different thicknesses
for the upper soil layer: h = 2 m and h = 5 m. The considered
lightning return-stroke current is typical of subsequent return
strokes whose parameters are presented in the companion paper. It is supposed that the lightning discharge strikes a point
alongside the cable and 20 m far from the cable left termination.
The cable is considered to have a length of L = 50 m buried
at a depth of 0.9 m under the ground surface. The cable inner
conductor is open circuited at both ends. The induced currents
on the shield of the buried cable at the left and right terminations
are shown in Figs. 12 and 13, respectively. Results associated
with the homogeneous soils with the same properties of the upper and the lower soil layers are also shown on the same figures.
As seen from these figures, the presence of a multilayer soil
can markedly affect the induced currents magnitude and waveshape. This effect, however, depends on the conductivities of
the upper and lower soil layers as well as on the thickness of
the upper soil layer and the burial depth of the cable. In fact,
as it is seen from these figures, for an upper soil layer of h =

Fig. 10. Geometry for the calculation of lightning-induced currents on the

buried cable at the ICLRT at Camp Blanding (adapted from [3]).
TABLE I
HEIDLERS PARAMETERS FOR REPRODUCING TRIGGERED RETURN-STROKE
CURRENTS REPORTED IN [3]

Parameters

21 22
I01 11 12
I02
n
n
(kA) ( s) ( s) 1 (kA) ( s) ( s) 2

Second triggered return stroke current at

23.1 0.28 4.74 5
SL#2 adapted from [3].

9.7

100 5

2 m, the maximum induced current is obtained for the case of

a horizontally stratified two-layer ground in which the upper
soil layer is characterized by a higher conductivity compared to
the lower soil layer. As the thickness of the upper soil layer is
increased to h = 5 m, the maximum induced current occurs for

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Fig. 11. Induced currents on the cable shield at IS1 for a triggered return
stroke event measured at the ICLRT at Camp Blanding (adapted from [3]).
Black solid line: measured waveform, red solid line: numerical simulations
for a homogeneous ground ( = 0.0017 S/m and r = 10), blue dotted line:
numerical simulations for a two-layer ground ( u = 0.0017 S/m, r u = 10;
d = 0.1 S/m, r d = 30). Depth of the upper soil layer is h = 40 m.

Fig. 14. Lightning-induced current on the shield of the buried cable shown
in Fig. 9 at left termination. The cable length is L = 150 m. (a) h = 2 m and
(b) h = 5 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

Fig. 12. Lightning-induced current on the shield of the buried cable shown
in Fig. 9 at left termination. The cable length is L = 50 m. (a) h = 2 m and
(b) h = 5 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

the case of a homogeneous soil characterized by a conductivity

of 0.001 S/m (less conductive layer). It is also seen that for the
case of a two-layer ground, the steepness of the induced current
waveforms is affected by the soil stratification so that a larger
rise time is observed for the case of a two-layer ground in which
the upper soil layer is more conductive than the lower soil layer.
The results presented in these figures indicate interestingly that
the minimum induced current takes place for the case of a twolayer ground in which the upper soil layer is less conductive
than the lower soil layer, in particular, when the thickness of the
upper soil layer is of h = 2 m.
To further evaluate the effect of a horizontally stratified
ground on the induced currents, we consider the same cable
shown in Fig. 9 with a different length of L = 150 m for which
the induced currents at left termination are shown in Fig. 14. As
it can be seen from this figure, the horizontally stratified ground
affects the induced current in a similar way already reported for
the cable with a shorter length.
C. Simulations for a Cable Buried in the Lower Soil Layer

Fig. 13. Lightning-induced current on the shield of the buried cable shown
in Fig. 9 at right termination. The cable length is L = 50 m. (a) h = 2 m and
(b) h = 5 m. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

We consider here the same cable system with an increased

burial depth of d = 5 m. The thickness of the upper soil layer is
h = 2 m and the ground conductivities for the upper and
lower soil layers are of (u , d ) = (0.01 S/m, 0.001 S/m) and
(u , d ) = (0.001 S/m, 0.01 S/m) having the same relative permittivity of r = 10. Results associated with currents induced
on the cable shield due to the same stroke location as in the
previous section, calculated at the left and right terminations are
presented in Fig. 15. As it is seen, when the cable is buried inside the lower soil layer, the effect of the soil layer with a higher
conductivity appears as a shield attenuating the electric field
that penetrates into the ground, decreasing the induced currents
compared to the case of a homogeneous soil characterized by
the properties of the less conductive soil layer. As a result, when

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the two layers. The horizontal electric field inside a stratified

ground always takes values in between the fields corresponding
to one-layer homogenous grounds.
We also presented a comparison with available experimental
data of induced currents on a shielded buried cable and showed
that, in agreement with recent results of Paulino and coworkers,
taking the soil stratification into account allows to improve the
late-time response of the induced currents.
We also showed that the soil horizontal stratification may
result, in some cases, in an enhancement of the induced currents
with respect to the case of a homogeneous ground characterized
by the electrical properties of either of the two layers.

REFERENCES

Fig. 15. Lightning-induced current on the shield of the buried cable shown in
Fig. 9. The thickness of the upper soil layer is h = 2 m, and the cable burial
depth is d = 5 m. The cable length is L = 50 m. (a) Left termination and
(b) right termination. Return-stroke current typical of subsequent strokes.

the cable is buried inside the lower layer, the induced currents
on the shield of the cable are predominantly determined by the
properties of the more conductive layer.
It is worth noting that the simulations are conducted on an
Intel i7 PC with 64 GB RAM. A system of linear equations is
obtained using 182727 mesh elements. For the calculation of
electromagnetic fields, we used a two-dimensional (2-D) finite
element modeling which takes about 30 s. However, the induced
currents are obtained using a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element modeling of the problem that takes about 20 min for a
50-m-long cable.
IV. CONCLUSION
We used a full-wave finite-element-based solution of
Maxwells equations for the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields inside a horizontally stratified two-layer ground
at different distances from the channel base. We have also presented and discussed simulation results for lightning induced
currents on the shield of a cable buried in a horizontally stratified two-layer ground.
It was shown that the azimuthal component of the magnetic
field in the upper soil layer is affected by the soil stratification
only when this layer is more conductive than the lower soil layer.
On the other hand, inside the lower soil layer this component is
always affected by the soil stratification. It was also shown that
the conductivity of the upper soil layer has a dominant effect
on the vertical electric field in the upper soil layer in particular
at close observation points. However, the vertical electric field
inside a more conductive lower soil layer is identical to that
corresponding to a homogeneous soil with the same electrical
properties of the lower soil layer. When the lower soil layer is
less conductive than the upper soil layer, the vertical electric field
takes values in between the fields associated with homogenous
grounds characterized by the electrical properties of either of

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This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
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Javad Paknahad was born in Iran in 1989. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Tafresh Campus, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2011,
and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, in 2013.
He is currently a Research Assistant at the Power
System Laboratory, Shahid Beheshti University. His
current research interests include power system modeling and simulations, electromagnetic compatibility,
and application of electromagnetics in power system.

Keyhan Sheshyekani (M10SM13) was born in

Iran in 1979. He received the B.S. degree in electrical
engineering from Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, in
2001, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, Iran, in 2003
and 2008, respectively.
He was with Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

[Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)],
Lausanne, Switzerland, in September 2007, as a Visiting Scientist and later as a Research Assistant. He is
currently an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering with Shahid Beheshti
University, Tehran. His current research interests include power system modeling and simulation, smart grid, microgrids, and electromagnetic compatibility.

Farhad Rachidi (M93SM02F10) received the

M.S. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D.
degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech
nology [Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL)], Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1986 and 1991,
respectively.
Until 1996, he was with the Power Systems Laboratory, EPFL. In 1997, he joined the Lightning Research Laboratory, University of Toronto, Canada,
and from April 1998 until September 1999, he was
with Montena EMC, Switzerland. He is currently a
Titular Professor and the Head of the EMC Laboratory, EPFL. He is the author
or coauthor of 120 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals and
over 250 papers presented at international conferences.
Dr. Rachidi was the Vice-Chair of the European COST Action on the Physics
of Lightning Flash and Its Effects (20052009) and the Chairman of the 2008
European Electromagnetics International Symposium (EUROEM). He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC
COMPATIBILITY, the President of the International Conference on Lightning
Protection (ICLP), and the President of the Swiss National Committee of the
International Union of Radio Science (URSI). In 2005, he was the recipient of
the IEEE Technical Achievement Award and the CIGRE Technical Committee
Award. In 2006, he was awarded the Blondel Medal from the French Association of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information Technology and
Communication (SEE).

Mario Paolone (M07SM10) was born in Italy in

1973. He received the M.Sc. degree (with honors) in
electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, in 1998 and
2002, respectively.
In 2005, he was appointed Researcher in Electric Power Systems, University of Bologna, where he
was with the Power Systems Laboratory until 2011.
In 2010, he received the Associate Professor eligibility from the Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the Swiss

Federal Institute of Technology [Ecole

Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL)], Lausanne, Switzerland, where he accepted the EOS Holding Chair of
Distributed Electrical Systems Laboratory. His current research interests include
power systems, with particular reference to real-time monitoring and operation,
power system protections, power systems dynamics, and power system transients. He is the author or coauthor of more than 170 scientific papers published
in reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.
Dr. Paolone was the recipient of the IEEE EMC Society Technical Achievement Award in 2013. He is the Secretary and a Member of several IEEE and
Cigre Working Groups. He was the Co-chairperson of the Technical Committee
of the 9th edition of the International Conference of Power Systems Transients
(IPST 2009).