Grounding Calculations

General

IEC terminology
International standard IEC 60364 distinguishes three families of
earthing arrangements, using the two-letter codes TN, TT, and IT.

TT System
A TT earthing system, the protective earth connection of the consumer
is provided by a local connection to earth, independent of any earth
connection at the generator. It has a direct connection to the supply
source to earth and a direct connection of the installation of metal works
to earth.

TN System
In a TN earthing system, one of the points in the generator or
transformer is connected with earth, usually the star point in a three-
phase system. The body of the electrical device is connected with earth
via this earth connection at the transformer.
The conductor that connects the exposed metallic parts of the
consumer's electrical installation is called protective earth. The
conductor that connects to the star point in a three-phase system, or
that carries the return current in a single-phase system, is called neutral
(N).

TN-S: A TN-S system has the supply source directly connected to

earth, the installation metal work connected to the neutral of the
supply source via the lead sheath of the supply cable, and the

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 neutral and protective conductors throughout the whole system
performing separate functions.

TN−C: A combined PEN conductor fulfills the functions of both a PE

and an N conductor.

TN-C-S: A TN-C-S system is same as the TN-S but he supply cable

sheath is also the neutral, i.e. it forms a combined earth / neutral
conductor. The installation earth and neutral are separate
conductors. This system is also known as PME (protective multiple
earthing).

IT System
In an IT network, the electrical distribution system has no connection to
earth at all, or it has only a high impedance connection

Miscellaneous Grounding Calculations

The miscellaneous grounding calculations considering the requirements

of Linear Accelerator (LINAC) supplier earthing specifications and
standard practices of code and standards.

The following items listed from LINAC grounding specifications and

requirements:

· The LINAC must have a dedicated grounding electrode “to earth

the power supply and instrument rack”. It should be located
outside the building and directly buried to the ground.
· The LINAC & Radiology building over-all grounding resistance
must be less than 1 ohm (Ω).
· The LINAC miscellaneous grounding will be interconnected with
the building power & telecom grounding ring.

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 · Bonding to lightning protection electrode and ring is not required.

To implement the LINAC grounding requirements, the following design

procedure will be included and considered:

· The radiology building is having four (4) units of LINAC. The

grounding design is to provide three rods placed in an equilateral
triangle for the grounding electrode of each LINAC.
· The grounding electrode will be three meter (3m) long and 20mm
diameter solid copper earth rod. Refer to below catalog reference.

Reference 7 Bahra Earthing System Solid Copper Rod Catalog

· The triangular electrodes will be interconnected through Bare

Copper Wire (BCW) with a minimum size of 100mm² or 14mm
diameter.

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Reference 8 Bahra Earthing System Bare Copper Wire Catalog

Figure 8 Equilateral Triangular Grounding Pit

Calculation of resistance Re for the three (3) rods / electrodes at the

vertices of an equilateral triangle “grounding pit no. 1” (shown TRI-1 in
the grounding layout).

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 1 8L
Re = { 2 ( ln - 1 ) -1 + 2Ls }
3 d

Where:

ρ = the soil resistivity in Ω.m

L = the length of grounding rod in meters

d = the diameter of the rod / electrode in meters

s = the length of one side of the equilateral triangle in meters

Given data:

ρ = 127 Ω.m. (as per project borehole No.3 Resistivity Data)

L = 3 meters (refer to Bahra solid copper rod on page 111)

d = 0.02 meter (refer to Bahra grounding electrode on page 112)

s = 3 meters distance between rods / electrode

The calculation will be;

1 8 x 3m
Re = { 2 ( ln - 1 ) -1 + 2 x 3m x 3m }
3 0.02m

Re = 9.726718 Ω

Therefore, the over-all resistance of one (1) equilateral triangular

grounding pit will be 9.726718 Ω. This is the over-all grounding
resistance for triangular pit number one “TRI-1” in the layout. Typical
with grounding pit TRI-2, TRI-3, TRI-4 and TRI-5.

Refer to next page for the grounding layout and details.

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Figure 9 Grounding Layout

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 Selection of an Earthing Conductor and Connection to
an Electrode

By using BS-7430

I 3
S=
k
Where:
S = is the corresponding conductor cross-sectional area in mm2
I = is the average fault current in A, R.M.S.
t = is the fault current duration in second.
k = 176 A/mm², this is the R.M.S current density per mm2 given
in table 4 of BS-7430 for copper at a maximum temperature of
250°C.

Given:
I = 46,080 Amperes R.M.S
t = 0.2 second
k = 176 @ 250 °C as a maximum temperature as per Table 4
of BS-7430.

By direct substitutions:

46080 0.2
S=
176
S = 117.09 mm2 Approximately 120 mm2 Bare Copper Wire

Therefore, the provided building ring grounding size at 120mm2 bare

copper wire is sufficient to withstand the highest ground fault current
of the entire electrical system.

Grounding Calculation Procedures for Building

The purpose of this calculation is to determine the required number

of grounding electrodes to achieved an overall grounding resistance

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from 1-5 Ω as mentioned in IEEE Std 142-2007, IEEE Recommended
Practice for Grounding of Industrial and Commercial Systems and
ANSI/TIA-942, G.5.1.5 Building Grounding and Lighting Protection
Systems.

Given data:

L1 = the Length of the building grounding ring is 60 meters

W = the Width of the building grounding ring is 60 meters

n = Total number of rods in hollow square or rectangle, one side.

N = Total number of electrodes around the building or square ring.

Calculation for the number of rods in one side:

L1 60m
In which, n = , therefore: n = = 12 rods
4+1 4+1

Calculation for the total number of rods in the ring:

Where, N = 4 (n – 1), therefore: N = 4 x (12 rods -1) = 44 rods

From the grounding layout at the latter page, the distance of each
rod upon distribution of 44 rods in the 240 meters over-all building
grounding ring length is 5.454545 meters equal distances.

The grounding resistance calculations for the building ring & rods are
carried out based on the formulas given on Table 13 of IEEE Std 142-
2007. Below formulas are the following:

For two ground rods:

ρ 4L ρ L2 2L4
R2GR>S = (ln -1) + (1 - + )
4πL a 4πs 3s2 5s4

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For two ground rods, diameter of ring D, diameter of wire d,

ρ 8D 4D
RROW= (ln + ln )
2π2D d s

LO
Diameter of Ring of Wire, D =
π

Where:
R1GR, R2GR>S, R2GR<S, RROW = resistance in ohm (Ω)
ρ = soil resistivity in ohm-centimeter (Ω.m)
Lo = length of ring of wire in meter (m)
L = length of electrode in meter (m)
a = radius of electrode in meter (m)
s = spacing of ground electrode in meter (m)
D = diameter of Ring of Wire in meter (m)
d = diameter of wire in meter (m)

In which:
Grounding electrode conductor = 120mm2 bare copper

Ground electrode = 3 m x 20 mm solid copper ground rods

ρ = 127 Ω.m

s = 5.45 m

Lo = 240 m

Lo 240 m
D= = = 76.394372 m
π π

S = 1.2 m (depth of grounding electrode conductor)

a = 0.01000 m (refer to Bahra catalog on page 111)

d = 0.01421 m (refer to Bahra catalog on page 112)

L = 3 m (length of grounding electrode)

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Calculating the ground resistance of Ring of Wire;

ρ 8D 4D
RROW = (ln + ln )
2π2D d s

127 8 x 76.3943 4 x 76.3943

RROW = ( ln + ln )
2x π2 x 76.3943 0.01421 1.2

RROW = 0.898562 Ω (Equation 1)

For two ground rods:

ρ 4L ρ L2 2L4
R2GR>S = (ln -1) + (1 - + )
4πL a 4πs 3s2 5s4

Calculating for two ground rods at spacing of S1 = 5.45m;

ρ 4L ρ L2 2L4
R2GR>S = (ln -1) + (1 - + )
4πL a 4πs 3s2 5s4

127 4x3 127

R2GR>S = ( ln -1 ) + x
4xπx3 0.0100 4 x π x 5.45

32 2 x 34
(1- + )
3 x 5.452 5 x 5.454

= 23.882098 + 1.854374 x (1 - 0.101001 + 0.036724)

R2GR>S = 25.617094 Ω

Using the same formula for other spacing provided, the summary of
the grounding resistance of each two grounding rods were shown in
the below Table-1.

Calculating for the total grounding resistance RT:

RT = R2GR(total) + RROW + Re (Equation 2)

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Where RT, is carried out using the below formula for parallel
resistances:

1 1 1
= + (Equation 3)
RT R2GR(total) RROW

Where, R2gr(total) is the total resistance of all parallel grounding

electrodes surrounding the ring.

1 1 1
= +
R1 Rs12 Rs23

Rs12 x Rs23 25.617094 x 25.617094

R1 = = = 12.808547 Ω
Rs12 + Rs23 25.617094 + 25.617094

1 1 1
= +
R2 R1 Rs34

R1 x Rs34 12.808547 x 25.617094

R2 = = = 8.539031 Ω
R1 + Rs34 12.808547 + 25.617094

1 1 1
= +
R3 R2 Rs45

R2 x Rs45 8.539031 x 25.617094

R 3= = = 6.404274 Ω
R2 + Rs45 8.539031 + 25.617094

Summarizing using the above sequence formula, the table has

obtained to show the summary of grounding resistance per two rods
as tabulated in the next pages.

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Table 11 Summary of Grounding Resistance per Two Rods

Resistance Spacing Cummulative

Item
Description to ground in meter resistance
No.
(Ω) (m) (Ω)

1 RS 1_2 25.617094 5.454545 12.808547

2 RS 2_3 25.617094 5.454545 8.539031

3 RS 3_4 25.617094 5.454545 6.404274

4 RS 4_5 25.617094 5.454545 5.123419

5 RS 5_6 25.617094 5.454545 4.269516

6 RS 6_7 25.617094 5.454545 3.659585

7 RS 7_8 25.617094 5.454545 3.202137

8 RS 8_9 25.617094 5.454545 2.846344

9 RS 9_10 25.617094 5.454545 2.561709

10 RS 10_11 25.617094 5.454545 2.328827

11 RS 11_12 25.617094 5.454545 2.134758

12 RS 12_13 25.617094 5.454545 1.970546

13 RS 13_14 25.617094 5.454545 1.829792

14 RS 14_15 25.617094 5.454545 1.707806

15 RS 15_16 25.617094 5.454545 1.601068

16 RS 16_17 25.617094 5.454545 1.506888

17 RS 17_18 25.617094 5.454545 1.423172

18 RS 18_19 25.617094 5.454545 1.348268

19 RS 19_20 25.617094 5.454545 1.280855

20 RS 20_21 25.617094 5.454545 1.219862

21 RS 21_22 25.617094 5.454545 1.164413

22 RS 22_23 25.617094 5.454545 1.113787

23 RS 23_24 25.617094 5.454545 1.067379

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 Resistance Spacing Cummulative
Item
Description to ground in meter resistance
No.
(Ω) (m) (Ω)

24 RS 24_25 25.617094 5.454545 1.024684

25 RS 25_26 25.617094 5.454545 0.985273

26 RS 26_27 25.617094 5.454545 0.948781

27 RS 27_28 25.617094 5.454545 0.914896

28 RS 28_29 25.617094 5.454545 0.883348

29 RS 29_30 25.617094 5.454545 0.853903

30 RS 30_31 25.617094 5.454545 0.826358

31 RS 31_32 25.617094 5.454545 0.800534

32 RS 32_33 25.617094 5.454545 0.776276

33 RS 33_34 25.617094 5.454545 0.753444

34 RS 34_35 25.617094 5.454545 0.731917

35 RS 35_36 25.617094 5.454545 0.711586

36 RS 36_37 25.617094 5.454545 0.692354

37 RS 37_38 25.617094 5.454545 0.674134

38 RS 38_39 25.617094 5.454545 0.656849

39 RS 39_40 25.617094 5.454545 0.640427

40 RS 40_41 25.617094 5.454545 0.624807

41 RS 41_42 25.617094 5.454545 0.609931

42 RS 42_43 25.617094 5.454545 0.595746

43 RS 43_44 25.617094 5.454545 0.582207

Therefore;

R43_44 = R2GR(total) = 0.582207 Ω

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1 1 1
= + (Equation 3)
RT R2GR(total) RROW

R2GR(total) x RROW 0.582207 x 0.898562

RT = = = 0.353295 Ω
R2GR(total) + RROW 0.582207 + 0.898562

Since RT is 0.353295 Ω, the grounding resistance calculated based

on the grounding design provided is admissible compared to the
acceptable grounding values as per ANSI/TIA-942, G.5.1.5 which is
1-5 ohms.

The LINAC & Radiology building specification requirement is also

satisfied since the over-all grounding resistance of the entire building
is less than 1 ohm (Ω), aside from major equipment miscellaneous
grounding.

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