Analysis of grounding systems in soils with cylindrical soil volumes

A theoretical model for the analysis of grounding systems located in soils with cylindrical soil volumes is presented for the first time. Exact closed-form analytical expressions for earth potentials due to current sources in different regions of such soil structures have been obtained. More precisely, the soil models considered contain horizontal semi-cylindrical soil volumes and vertical cylindrical soil volumes. Numerical results are presented for different grounding systems and for different types of cylindrical soil volumes. The results clearly show that these soil structures have a significant influence on the performance of grounding systems. The results obtained are in agreement with well-known simple case results and converge asymptotically to the uniform soil case.