IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO.

3, JULY 2006

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A Practical Approach for Determining the

Ground Resistance of Grounding Grids
J. A. Gemes-Alonso, Member, IEEE, F. E. Hernando-Fernndez, F. Rodrguez-Bona, and J. M. Ruiz-Moll

AbstractThis paper starts from the premise that ground resistance is independent of earth-fault current and presents a new
method for calculating the ground resistance of grounding grids
using the finite-element method. The results obtained using the
method proposed are compared with results measured experimentally and results published by other authors. Once ground resistance and earth-fault current are known, grid potential and touchand-step voltages can be calculated. The main advantage of the
method proposed here is that it permits us to analyze symmetrical
and nonsymmetrical grids of any shape in uniform soils. It provides
a fast-resolution industrial application with acceptable results for
calculating the ground resistance of grounding grids of any shape.
The results obtained with the proposed method are used as the
basis for formulating an easy-to-use equation for calculating the
ground resistance of grounding grids in uniform soils.
Index TermsEarth potentials, grounding grids, ground resistance, modeling, simulation, step voltage.

I. INTRODUCTION

N THE LIGHT OF increasing public sensitivity with regard to electrical risks for people, increases in the power
available in electrical power systems and more stringent technical demands in electrical protection systems, an exact study
of grounding grids needs to be carried out.
Grounding grids are basically made of round steel rods that
form two-dimensional (2-D) grids (normally square or rectangular in shape) buried 0.40.6 m deep in the soil. Each grid comprises a number of meshes.
The ground resistance of a grounding grid is lower when the
grid is made of meshes and ground rods [1], particularly if the
meshes are buried in high resistivity soil and a significant proportion of the length of the ground rods is in contact with low
resistivity soil [2].
Ground resistance in electrical power systems is defined as
, where is the electric potential of the grounding grid, and
is the earth-fault current (electric current that flows into the
earth through the grounding grid).
The ground resistance for a given fault current determines
what hazardous voltages exist inside or around the substation or
generating station. It is therefore an important technical parameter linked to the safety of people and equipment. If an earth
fault occurs in a substation or generating stations where the
Manuscript received March 15, 2004; revised March 10, 2005. This work
was supported in part by the Basque Government under Research Project
UE2000-21, Vitoria, Spain. Paper no. TPWRD-00129-2004.
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department, University
of the Basque Country, Bilbao 48012, Spain (e-mail: iepgualj@lg.ehu.es;
ies@sarenet.es; frbona@euskalnet.net; ruizmoll@euskalnet.net).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2006.874121

ground resistance is too high, personnel may be killed or injured

and equipment may be damaged.
Grounding grids are, without doubt, the most important part
of an electrical system from the point of view of the safety of
people and equipment. The safety, reliability, and correct operation of electrical power systems depend on the standard of
design and construction of their grounding grids.
The main jobs of a grounding grid are:
to protect personnel against electrical risks by limiting
the overvoltages to which they may be exposed if ground
faults occur in substations or generating stations;
to ensure safety and continuity of electrical equipment by
limiting the overvoltages that can appear under extreme
operation conditions or in case of accident;
to ensure correct operation of equipment and electrical
protection devices by enabling ground faults to be detected
and action to be taken to disconnect those areas of the electrical installation where faults have occurred.
This paper presents a practical approach that will be of great
help to electrical power engineers, as it enables them to calculate
the ground resistance of grounding grids of any shape (square,
rectangular, triangular, etc.) in uniform soils via a single test
[using the finite-element method (FEM)]. The method proposed
has been tried and tested in practice. It does not depend on the
grounding grid shape, the grid potential (earth-fault current), or
the boundary potential defined in the simulation of grounding
grid behavior.
II. BACKGROUND
Estimating the ground resistance of grounding grids is an
important step in determining the size and basic layout of a
grounding system for an ac substation.
Calculation methods for determining the ground resistance of
grounding grids use the following simplifying hypotheses:
the soil is an infinite medium, which is flat, isotropic, and
stratified in layers of uniform thickness;
the laws of electromagnetism may be applied to calculate
ground resistance and potential distribution in the soil;
grounding grid rods are assumed to be linear, interconnected, and buried close to the soil surface;
grounding grid behavior at power frequencies can be determined using electromagnetic field analysis techniques
for stationary fields (propagation time is rejected).
The various calculation methods are based on the determination of grid potential or grid capacitance.
The first method is based on determining the grounding grid
potential, usually by means of the image method [3], [4].

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The second method is based on determining the electrode capacitance on the basis of the ratio of electric charge to potential
once the electric field in the soil has been calculated.
Once the grounding grid potential and the earth-fault current
are known, the ground resistance of the grounding grid can be
calculated by applying Ohms law.
Simple formulas for calculating ground resistance have been
proposed by Dwight et al., [5][14] for grounding grids without
vertical ground rods buried in uniform soils and by Salama [15]
and Chow [16] for grids with and without ground rods in twolayer soils.
Over the past 30 years, calculation methods for determining the ground resistance and the step-and-touch voltages
of grounding systems have been proposed by Dawalibi, et
al., [17][20]. These methods generally involve symmetrical
grounding grids in uniform or two-layer soils. Using different
mathematical techniques, they enable us to model actual systems in theoretical systems with comparable results.
Recently, studies based on the finite-element method (FEM)
have been used to calculate the ground resistance of grounding
grids. The first studies to simulate grounding grid behavior via
FEM were based on calculating ground resistance for an arbitrary grid potential. The grid current for the grid potential set is
determined by means of a current flow analysis. Once the current is calculated, ground resistance is determined as the quotient between the voltage (grid potential less boundary potential) and the current calculated [21].
In this method, it was difficult to select the size of the model
(earth distance to be considered starting from the grounding
grid), and this conditioned the numerical value calculated for
ground resistance (the potential at each point in the soil is related to the distance between that point and the grounding grid).
To decrease ground resistance calculation errors, electrical
power engineers were forced to analyze models of different
sizes with a high number of nodes, but the low levels of accuracy of the results and the long calculation times required meant
that this method was not very feasible. Another problem is the
numerical value of the boundary conditions to be applied for the
size of the model considered.
To overcome the difficulties of the method outlined above,
another method was developed that enabled ground resistance
to be determined starting from the dissipated power or from the
energy stored by the electric field in the model [22].
The development of finite-element software and improvements in the performance of PCs as calculation tools mean that
we can now solve systems with more equations than just a few
years ago, and do so more quickly. With three-dimensional
(3-D)-solid modeling techniques, we can now use finite-element models with small element sizes close to grounding grid
rods.
In view of the foregoing, this paper presents a method for
calculating ground resistance in which only a single test using
FEM needs to be performed, thus saving time in determining
ground resistance.
This method has the additional advantage of being independent of the boundary condition, shape, and size of the grid and
of the soil structure.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 3, JULY 2006

The method presented may prove highly useful in determining precise formulas for calculating ground resistance in
different kinds of grounding grid, with no need to build and
measure large numbers of grounding grids or to study scale
models [23]. Taking the ground resistance results obtained for
different configurations of grounding grids as our data, we have
drawn up an easy-to-use equation for calculating the ground
resistance of grounding grids in uniform soils.
III. METHOD
As indicated above, the greatest difficulties in determining
ground resistance using FEM are:
1) the shape and size of the finite-element model;
2) the potential to be assigned to the conductors in the
grounding grid;
3) the potential to be assigned to the boundary in the finite-element model (the numerical value of the boundary condition is unknown and depends on the soil volume of the
model and on the potential assigned to the grid).
To solve these problems, we will apply these two premises:
1) at power frequencies, the ground resistance of a grounding
grid depends solely on the shape and size of the grounding
grid and on the soil structure (conductivity and thickness
of each layer of soil), so that it is independent of the numerical value of the earth-fault current;
2) the soil is an infinite medium with a flat surface.
If the ground resistance of a grounding grid is independent
of the earth-fault current, then it must also be independent of
the grounding grid potential; consequently, the grid potential
can be set at any numerical value in the finite-element model
for calculating the grounding resistance. Another consideration
is that when the grid potential (earth-fault current) is modified,
so is the distribution of potentials in the soil and, therefore, so
is the boundary potential to be set in the finite-element model.
This problem is tackled below.
From the second statement above, it can be deduced that the
ground volume should be considered as infinite, with zero potential at the boundary. Of course, this is not possible, so to solve
this problem, we have to find a finite model in which a boundary
potential of a known value can be defined.
at the
For any infinite volume with electrical potential
grid and zero (or any other numerical value) at the boundary,
the equipotent surfaces tend to become semi-spherical as we
move away from the grid. Theoretically, the equipotent surface
is semi-spherical only for distances close to infinite (Fig. 1),
but for calculation methods that have a practical application,
can be much shorter. Our experience in designing grounding
grids and measuring their ground resistance shows that for uniform soils, can be determined by means of the following expression:
(1)
where
is the diagonal dimension of the grounding grid in
meters.
Once it is accepted that the equipotent surface at a distance
is semi-spherical (the error implicit in this assumption may be

GUMES et al.: PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR DETERMINING GROUND RESISTANCE

Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Soil.

smaller than that made in measuring soil resistivity), the ground

resistance can be calculated as the sum of two resistances
(2)
where
is the resistance of a semi-sphere with radius
(Fig. 1). With being the earth distance for which the distribution of potentials in the soil can be assumed to be semi-spherical,
is the resistance between the semi-spheres with radii
and
and infinity.
A. Determination of Resistance
Resistance
is calculated using FEM.
For an arbitrary geometry, the resistance between two electrodes can be expressed in terms of an electric field by [24]
(3)
where is the surface that completely surrounds an electrode,
is any trajectory that joins the two electrodes, is the electrical
conductivity, is the electric field, and is the current density.
It can be deduced from (3) that resistance depends only on
geometry and electrical conductivity.
In general, it is more advisable to calculate resistance (3)
starting from dissipated power, by means of the following expression:
Voltage
Dissipated power

(4)

At the same time, dissipated power is determined by

(5)
Dissipated power (5) is calculated by applying current flow
analysis to the finite-element model.
The finite-element model is comprisesd of a semi-spherical
volume of radius
(Fig. 2) and is defined according to the
geometry of the grounding grid and the soil structure. In that
volume, the grounding grid is located at a depth . Before

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Resistance R .

defining the model, it is very important to check whether there

are electrical symmetries in the grounding grid.
The finite-element mesh is made up of four-node solid elements (tetrahedrons). It is important that the elements should be
small and of uniform size in the proximity of the rods of the
grounding grid.
Properties are defined by means of the electrical conductivity.
Section III states that ground resistance depends only on soil
structure and grounding grid geometry. Accordingly, the grid
in Fig. 2) can be arbitrary.
potential (
, the potential distriIf we accept that for distances
bution in the soil is semi-spherical (the numerical value of the
potential is constant over the whole boundary of the finite-element model), the resistance of the model depends only on the
grounding grid geometry and the soil structure. The boundary
potential can therefore be arbitrary.
Once the analysis has been performed and the dissipated
can be calculated by means of
power calculated, resistance
the following expression:
Voltage
Dissipated power

Dissipated power

where
is the potential in the grounding grid (V); and
the potential in the boundary (V).

(6)
is

B. Determination of Resistance
Resistance , which is small compared to , can be calculated by applying expression (3) to calculate the resistance of a
semi-spherical resistor of internal radius and infinite external
radius (Fig. 3).
In these conditions, (3) is transformed into the following expression [24]:
(7)

C. Determination of Touch-and-Step Voltages

Once the ground resistance has been calculated (2), the finite-element model can be analyzed again to obtain the actual
potential distribution in the soil. This second test (which is only
needed to obtain the actual potential distribution) is made by
setting actual grid potential and actual boundary potential. The
is calculated as the product
actual grid potential
of the actual fault current and the ground resistance calculated
in the first test; the boundary potential on the external surface
is calculated as the product of
of the model
and the actual fault current
(Fig. 4).
resistance
Once the actual potential distribution in the soil is known, the
touch-and-step voltages can be obtained:

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 3, JULY 2006

Fig. 3. Resistance R .
Fig. 5. Grounding grids.

Fig. 4. Boundary condition for the second test.

directly, by measuring the nodal potentials in the finiteelement model; or preferably

by using our own software program, in C language, which
reads the potentials at the different nodes on the model
surface and evaluates the points where the step voltage is
highest.
IV. EXAMPLES OF APPLICATION
In this section, the behavior of grounding grids in uniform
soils is simulated and the results are checked against measurements obtained experimentally. An equation for calculating the
ground resistance of grounding grids with square meshes of any
size in uniform soils is also proposed.
A. Grounding Grids of Any Shape
The method described above is applied to calculate the
ground resistance of:
1) a 4 2-m, 2-mesh, 4-ground rod grounding grid buried
at a depth of 0.6 m in uniform soil of conductivity
m ;
2.5-m, 4-mesh, 6-ground rod grounding grid
2) a 4.5
buried at a depth of 0.6 m in two-layer soil. The
first layer is 0.15 m thick and has a conductivity of
m and the second layer has a conducm ;
tivity of
3) a 6 4-m, 6-mesh , 6-ground rod grounding grid buried
at a depth of 0.6 m in uniform soil with a conductivity of
m ;
4) a 6 3-m, 8-mesh, 8-ground rod grounding grid buried
at a depth of 0.6 m in uniform soil with a conductivity of
m .
Fig. 5 shows a plan view of the grounding grids indicated.

Fig. 6. Grounding grid B. (a) Model (close-up of a quarter of the grounding

grid). (b) Finite-element mesh (close-up of a quarter of the grounding grid).

Fig. 6 shows the model and the finite-element mesh used for
of grounding grid B in Fig. 5.
calculating resistance
Fig. 6(b) shows the concrete and soil layers and how the elements used are very small and close to the rods of the grounding
grid, and increase in size as they get further away.
Table I shows the ground resistance calculated by the method
proposed in this paper and the results actually measured once
the grounding grid is built. The soil resistivity is measured using

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TABLE I
GROUND RESISTANCE

TABLE III
GROUND RESISTANCE OF GROUNDING GRIDS

TABLE II
STEP VOLTAGES

Conductivity of the soil

Number of meshes

n; Dimensions of grid

; Diameter of conductor

mm; Depth of burial

m;

a b

of grounding grids than shown in Table III enables us to deduce that the ground resistance of grounding grids with square
meshes in uniform soils can be calculated by means of an equation of the following form:
(8)

Fig. 7. Potential distribution in the soil.

the Wenner method and the ground resistance using the fall-ofpotential method.
Once the ground resistance and actual grid current are known,
the actual voltage distribution in the soil can be calculated.
Table II shows the maximum voltage between two points on
the soil surface 1 m apart for each grounding grid as indicated
above.
Fig. 7 shows the potential distribution for grounding grid B
in Fig. 5.
B. Ground Resistance of Grounding Grids in Uniform Soils.
The method presented in this paper has also been used to
calculate the ground resistance of a large number of grounding
grids in uniform soils.
Table III shows the ground resistance calculated for some of
these grounding grids, and compares them to the results calculated by other authors [13], [14].
Analysis of the numerical values of the ground resistance
calculated by the method proposed for a far greater number

where is the resistivity of the soil

m , is the area of one
mesh of the grounding grid m , is the number of meshes in
is the number of meshes in direction Y.
direction X, and
Equation (8) allows us to calculate the ground resistance of
grounding grids with square meshes of any size, without ground
rods, buried 0.5 m deep in uniform soils, with a grid rod diameter
of 0.01 m.
The numerical values obtained via (8) are accurate (average
) and do not require empirical tables or graphs. The
error
formula is very easy to use and can be applied with a handheld
calculator, making it a useful tool for engineers in the field.
For example, for a 6 3-m, 8-mesh grounding grid with a
soil resistivity of 24 m, the ground resistance calculated by
means of (8) is
(9)
For a known earth-fault current, the ground resistance of
grounding grids determines what dangerous voltages exist in or
around the substation. Consequently, in the design of grounding
grids, it is advisable to start from the maximum ground resistance of the grounding grid, so that the touch-and-step voltages
do not surpass the limits set under the regulations in force in
the relevant country.
As a result, it is more useful in practice when designing
grounding grids to determine what grounding grids match a
preset resistance figure than to determine the resistance of a
given grounding grid. Using a spreadsheet, it is easy to calculate
what grounding grids have a ground resistance below a certain
level.

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V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a way of calculating the ground resistance
of grounding grids using the FEM.
The method proposed has been tried and tested, and is independent of the shape of the grounding grid, the grid potential,
and the numerical value of the boundary condition defined in the
finite-element model. This makes it a useful method for engineers engaged in the design and analysis of grounding systems.
The method takes the arbitrary grid potential as its initial data
and determines the ground resistance of the grounding grid by
first calculating the electric field and dissipated power.
The results of the method presented in this paper are good in
comparison with those obtained experimentally and those published by other authors.
The method may prove highly useful in determining precise
formulas applied to calculating ground resistance in different
kinds of grounding grids.
An easy-to-use formula for calculating the ground resistance
of grounding grids with square meshes is also presented.
Once both the ground resistance and the earth-fault current
are known, the actual potential distribution in the soil surface
(finite-element model) and the touch-and-step voltages can be
calculated.
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J. A. Gemes-Alonso (M99) was born in La Rioja, Spain, in 1952. He received the industrial technical engineering and industrial engineering degrees
in electrical engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering from
the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 1975, 1979, and 1985,
respectively.
Currently, he is Full Professor of University College with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country, Spain. His research
interest include the behavior simulation of grounding grids and the design of
devices and electrical machines.

F. E. Hernando-Fernndez was born in Segovia, Spain, in 1955. He received

the industrial engineering degree in electricity from the University of the Basque
Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 1980.
Currently, he combines his work as Profesor Titular de Escuela Universitaria
(Senior Lecturer of University College) with the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of the Basque Country, and as an Industrial Engineer with
Instalaciones Elctricas Scorpio, S.A., Bilbao, Spain, a company which designs
and builds low- and high-voltage electrical installations.

F. Rodrguez-Bona was born in Vizcaya, Spain, in 1975. He received the industrial technical engineering and industrial engineering degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 2000
and 2003, respectively.
Currently, he is a Grant Holder with the University of the Basque Country.

J. M. Ruiz-Moll was born Santander, Spain, in 1975. He received the Industrial Technical Engineering and Industrial Engineering degrees in electrical engineering from the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in 2000
and 2003, respectively.
Currently, he is a Grant Holder with the University of the Basque Country.