Earthing Resistance Measurement Technique

Without using Auxiliary Electrodes

::-t

Kazuo Murakawa Hiroshi Yamane

NTT Energy and Environment Systems Lab. NTT Energy and Environment Systems Lab.
3-9- I 1, Midori-cho 3-9-1 1 , Midori-cho
Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-8585,JAPAN Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-8585,JAPAN
e-mail: murakawa.kazuo(ii1ab.ntt.co.h e-mail: yamane.hiroshi@jab.ntt.co.iD
Mitsuo Hattori
NTT EAST
10-23,Higashigotanda4-chome Shinagawa-ku,
Tokyo 14 1-0022 Japan
e-mail: hattori@tasc.mod.east.ntt.co.in
Abstract: potential measurement. However, it is difficult to measure
earthing resistance when earth soil is covered by pavement or
This paper proposes a technique for measuring earthing stones as shown in Fig. 2. Therefore, it is necessary to establish
resistance without using auxiliary electrodes. A new measurement technique without using auxiliary electrodes.
measurement technique and a measurement tool (eatth tester) are
introduced and discussed. The new technique is examined by S.G.
companng with the existing method (three poles method). The
earthing resistance deviation between the new technique and the 1
existing method are less than IO-20%. It is found that the new
technique is useful to evaluate or check earthing resistance when
earth soil surface is covered by pavement or stones.
Kevwords: Earthing resistance, measurement, without auxiliary
electrodes, earth retum circuit
1. Introduction
Earthing is important in terms of human safety, potential
reference, protection against overvoltage and overcurrent, signal
grounding and so on. Earthing resistances of earth electrodes or (a) Measurement system
poles are required by national regulations or for technical
reasons. There are several methods for earthing resistance, for
example, potential methods[ I ] and loop impedance methods.
These methods aTe widely used and use auxiliary electrodes,
which contact with the earth soil or ground.
However, it is difficult to measure earthing resistance when
pavement or stones cover the earth soil. Therefore, it is P y c.
necessary to establish measurement technique that does not need
auxiliary electrodes. This paper introduces a measurement theory (b) P o t e n t i a l distribution
and procedure for measuring earthing resistance of an earth
electrode under test and discuss measurement . Figure I Measurement system and potential distribution for
existing earth resistance method.
2. Existing earthing resistance measurement method
Auxiliary earth electrode
One existing earthing measurement method, which is a potential
method, is shown in Fig. 1 Figure I (a) is a measurement system
and Fig. I(b) shows a potential distribution when an output
voltage is applied between electrodes E and C.
In Fig. l(a), E is the earth electrode under test, P is an
auxiliary electrode for potential reference, C is an electrode for
current injection, S.G. is a signal generator with frequency 500
Hz or I lcHz and amplitude 30 Vms. A is an ampere meter and
V is a voltmeter with high impedance. In Fig. l(b), V is a
potential difference between E and P. The earthing resistance is
defined as the ratio V and A where the potential figure is flat.
Earth electrode
The existing measurement methods are widely used and give a
precise value of earthing resistance. To evaluate the earthing Figure 2 Difficulty of measuring earthing resistance when
resistance of the earth electrode under test, two auxiliary pavement and stones cover earth soil.
electrodes are driven into the earth soil for current injection and

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3. New earthing resistance measurement technique
3.1 Outline
Let us consider the existing measurement method without
using auxiliary electrodes P and C, or a wire connected to P.
Figure 3 represents this situation. Here, a lead wire is connected
to the earth electrode under test, and the retum wire is connected
only to a signal generator Vs. The other side of the return wire is
free. The lead and the return wires with insulator covers are on
Slates, etc.
Pastoral,
hills. rich soil
Flat

wooded
coun:;
marshy, densely

Pastoral, medium
hills
forestation
low

1 1
I
10

1o
I
~
30

IOL

2* 10-
~
I
IO'

,o'

the earth soil. The earth electrode under test, the lead wire, the
Rocky soil, steep 5* 10-
return wire compose the earth return circuit. In Fig. 3, h and a is
hills
the radius of each wire, and the diameters of the conducive
Sandy, dry, flat, I 3* lo2 1 5*102 I io4
metal. The E , , and 6,permittivity and permeability and typical of Coastal
soil conductivity of a lead wire and a return wire, respectively, country
while E , ,CL,, and CF2 are those of the earth soil. The earth soil
resistivity p(= I /CS)is shown in Table 1. It is about I - lo4 3.2 Formulation
Ohm-m and less than that of a wire's insulator (more than IOb To analyze the earthing resistance of the earth electrode under
ohm-m). The relative permittivity for earth soil is in the range test, we use Fig. 4. Here, we assume an infinite plane and
10-100, and that of a wire's insulator is about 2-4. Comparing transmission lines of earth soil. V(x) is the potential at x from
conductivity, a lead wire and a return wire are assumed to be z=- 00. In Fig. 4, two transmission line for the lead and the
located on a conductive plane. retum wires are considered: the lead wire is terminated by the
earth electrode under test, and the retum wire is open-terminated.
Z
AX is an infinitesimal value of x.
Leadwire 'f
Insulator

Figure 3 Concept of new measurement system.

Figure 4 Transmission model. ,

Table 1. Soil resistivity p , Transmission lines for AX shown in Fig. 4 can be

represented[2j by equivalent impedance as shown in Fig.5,
Soil Soil resistivity (ohm-m) where 2 ,is the internal wire impedance, L is the line
Mini. Mid. Max. inductance on earth soil, Zg is the ground impedance, C is the
Surface soils, 1 50 line capacitance, and Yois the shunt admittance. These can be
foam, etc. expressed by as follow~2]:
Clay 2 1 OL
Sand and gravel 50 10'
Surface 1 02 1o4
-r c .
Limestone 15 I 4* 10'
Shale
Sandstones 2+10. *
Granites, basalts
X
Decomposed 5'10- 4
eneisses Figure 5 Transmission line model on earth soil.

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 Po
L = -log 2h
-
2n a
C=- 2% v. . .
(2)' 'I
2h
log -
a
If ground conductivity is much higher than that of wire insulator,
Zg and Yg can be neglected. Therefore, the impedance at the
signal generator Vs can be given as follows under the conditions
ytL, << 1 and Y2h << 1.

where
Figure 6 Calculated result for earthing resistance.
2h
Z = 60 log(--) (4) 4.2 Measurement
a To examine our new technique, we measured the earthing
resistance of the earth electrode under test. The principle
y = -27c (5) measurement circuit of the new technique is shown in Fig.7. In
h, Fig.7, S.G. is a signal generator with a 50-ohm system, Ra and
Rb are attenuation resistances for reflection, Rc is a loading
resistance, Lc is an additive inductance with several resistance
values and stray capacitance. Mix. is a mixing device for
synchronous detection, LPF is a low-pass filter and v i s a dc
and rR is a reflection coefficient of the retum wire,Lz is a retum voltmeter.
wire length. h, is a wave length of the return wire with Lead wire
permeability E,. Calculating eq.(3), the earth resistance of earth
electrode can be obtained.

4 Calculations and measurements

S.

4.1 Calculations
The impedance at Vs can be obtained by calculating
transmission equations and has frequency dependencies because
many terms o f transmission models contain frequency
parameters. To evaluate earthing resistance, we calculate under
the following conditions:
L1 : 1 m (lead wire length)
L2: 20 m (retum wire length)
Ma: 2
frequency range: 100 Wz - 2 MHz
&: 30,50, 100,200,300,500 ohm
(earthing resistance under test is set)
The results of calculation are shown in Fig. 6. In Fig. 6 , the
horizontal axis indicates frequency and the vertical axis shows
calculated impedance. In this calculation, an additive inductance
of 47 PH with a IO-ohm resistance is applied to a lead wire
side because the resonance frequency does not exceed 2 MHz
and emission from the wire should be limited.
The calculated impedance shows frequency characteristics as
shown in Fig .6. At the resonance Frequency, there i s a
correlation between calculated values and given earthing
resistances. By considering them, it is possible to evaluate the
earthing resistance by the proposed technique without using
auxiliary electrodes.
Retum wire
Figure 7 Circuit of the earth tester
Earth resistance can be obtained by change frequency of the
signal generator and when measured impedance is minimum
according to eq.(3). Measurements were carried out at 18 points
at various areas in Japan. Earth electrodes under test whose
length is about 1 m were driven, and the earthing resistances
were measured by both our new technique and the existing
method.
The measurement results without correction are shown in Fig.
8, where the horizontal axis indicates earthing resistance
measured by existing method, and the vertical axis shows the
earthing resistance measured by our new technique for the earth
electrode under test. In Fig. 8, a solid curve shows theoretical
values for calculations, and a solid square shows measured
values. The deviation between the calculation and measurement
is less than IO -20 %. The relationship between measurement
results is not linear, however, by correcting the deviation

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between the existing method and the new technique, we can
obtain the earthing resistance by the new techniques.
Figure 8 Relationship between the existing method and the new
technique without correction
A developed earth tester is shown in Fig. 9. The earth tester
has a correction table regarding to the deviation between the
existing method and the new technique regarding to Fig.8. In
Fig. 9, the frequency change dial is used to change the signal
frequency. The earth tester indicates impedance at that frequency.
Changing frequency, we can earthing resistance of the electrode
under test when minimum impedance is indicated.
(a) Main body
(b) Main body and wires
Figure 9 A developed earth tester.
02003 IEEE.
0-7803-7779-6/03/$17.00
5. Conclusion
A new earthing resistance measurement technique without
using auxiliary electrodes is proposed. The , existing
measurement method was reviewed and several problems to
overcome were discussed. One solution considered i s an earth
return circuit composed of an earth electrode under test, a lead
wire and a return wire. Measurement results show good
correlation between the existing method arid the new techniques.
By correcting them, we can obtain the earthing resistance of the
earth electrode under test. The error between both the proposed
technique and the existing method are less than 10-20 %. It i s
found that the new technique is useful to evaluate or check
eanhing resistance when earth soil surface is covered by
pavement or stones. Further work is needed on error reduction
and applications of the earth tester.
References
[l J E.D. Sunde: “Earth Conduction Effects In Transmission
Systems”, Dover pub., 1967.
[2] F.M. Teshe et al.:“EMC Analysis methods and
computational models”,Juhn W d y 8 Sans,New York,
1997.
Kazuo Murakawa received B.D and M.E, D.E.
degree from Kumamoto University in 1983
and 1985,2000. After joined in NIT, he has
been researching EMC measuring and
estimation techniques for telecommunications
systems. He is the senior research engineer of
Electromagnetic Environment Technology
Group. He is a Q. IO rapporteur of ITU-T SG5.
I
Hiroshi Yamane received B.E. and D E. degree
from lbaraki University in I980 and 1997.
After joined in “IT,he has been researching
lightning surge and over-voltage protection of
telecommunications systems. He is the
manager of Electromagnetic Environment
Technology Group.
Mitsuo Hatton received B.E. and D.E. degree
from Nagoya lnstitute of Technology in 1974
and 1994. After joined in NTT, he has been
researchmg emission and immunity,
overvoltage and overcurrent, human safety of
telecommunications systems. He is the
manager of Technical support center of NTT
EAST. He IS a working party 2 (WP2),
chairman of ITU-T SG5
216