Calculation of the Earth Return Impedance of a Conductor Inside a Tunnel by Using the Fictitious Medium Method

This paper describes an efficient numerical approach for the calculation of the per-unit length earth-return impedance of a conductor inside a tunnel. The influence of the tunnel on the per-unit length impedance is replaced by a set of equivalent current sources via the fictitious medium method. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it can solve the boundary value problem within the tunnel region. The proposed method can reduce the calculation region and, thus, leads to time savings. A comparison of the numerical results with published data shows very good agreement. The proposed method is a good candidate for impedance calculation of a conductor inside a tunnel.