Determination of Frequency-Dependent Characteristics of Substation Grounding Systems by Vector Finite-Element Analysis

A three-dimensional finite-element tool was developed to compute time-harmonic electromagnetic fields and impedance of substation grounding systems. The formulation employs edge-based finite elements for the magnetic vector potential A and nodal shape functions for the electric scalar potential V. The method has been applied in several configurations presented in the literature. The results are compared with both analytical and experimental data reported by other authors, with overall good agreement