Interaction between grounding systems and electrostatic discharge events

In this paper the efficiency of equipotential and grounding systems with respect to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event is investigated. This investigation has been made from a numerical point of view by a suitable application of finite-difference in time-domain (FDTD) algorithms to analyze different grounding system configurations, and by an experimental point of view by carrying out a measurement system for the conducted interferences in metallic objects connected to ground and stroked by ESD. Experimental measurements have been used here to validate the numerical procedure.