Modeling Performance Variation of Earthing Enhancement Materials in Different Soils and Conditions

The selection of materials to improve the grounding in locations with poor grounding has been guided by four criteria recommended by the IEC 62561-7. Currently, there are no existing guidelines or criteria for matching the soil, optimizing the use, and enhancing the efficiency of these materials in different environmental and situational contexts. This study proposes a novel approach to assess the efficiency of earthing enhancement materials (EEM) and determine the optimal pairing of soil and EEM by investigating their capability to reduce resistance under varying conditions. To demonstrate this method, a simulation model of a vertical earth rod with clayey EEM in silty and sandy clay soils was constructed using the hydraulic and electrical properties of the soil and EEM in COMSOL Multiphysics software. The post-analysis results indicate that the interaction between the water retention of the soil and EEM significantly influences the resistance reduction characteristics of the EEM. Furthermore, it is observed that the performance of EEM in different soils under the same external factors is not equal. Therefore, by comparing the resistance reduction characteristics of different pairs of EEM and soil, it is possible to efficiently match the EEM to the respective soils.