Sri Lanka Institute of Information

Technology Faculty of Engineering

Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
EC3230: Electrical Installations.
Lab 01:Measurement Of Earth
Resistivity.

Name

: Bandara Y.R.R.D

Index Number : EN14558238

Group

: Group (01)

Submission Date

: 11th March 2016

Introduction
Actually finding earth resistivity is vey important because when people are
dealing with the electricity it is advisable for them to know about it practically.
The earth act as a conductor that is why the people can survive from the
different accidents caused by the electricity. Soil resistivity is a measure of how
much the soil resists the flow of electricity. It is a critical factor in design of
systems that rely on passing current through the Earth's surface. An
understanding of the soil resistivity and how it varies with depth in the soil is
necessary to design the grounding system in an electrical substation, or for
lightning conductors. It is needed for design of grounding (earthing) electrodes
for substations and High-voltage direct current transmission systems. In most
substations the earth is used to conduct fault current when there are ground
faults on the system. In single wire earth return power transmission systems, the
earth itself is used as the path of conduction from the end customers (the power
consumers) back to the transmission facility.
In general there is some value above which the impedance of the earth
connection must not rise, and some maximum step voltage which must not be
exceeded to avoid endangering people and livestock. System grounding has
been used since electrical power system began. However, many there are
different kind of grounding ways. Grounding of many systems has been based
upon past experience rather than engineering analysis. The earthling system is
very important for a few reasons, all of which are related to either the protection
of people and equipment and/or the optimal operation of the electrical system.
These include Equipotential bonding of conductive objects to the earthing
system prevent the presence of dangerous voltages between objects (and
earth).The earthing system provides a low resistance return path for earth faults
within the plant, which protects both personnel and equipment.
The resistance between the earth electrodes is critical to the safety of
equipment and personnel. Usually it must be less than 100ohms. This is not
always possible because of the high resistivity of some earthy materials. Broadly
speaking, earth resistance is the resistance of soil to the passage of electric
current. Actually, the earth is a relatively poor conductor of electricity compared
to normal conductors like copper wire. But, if the area of a path for current is
large enough, resistance can be quite low and the earth can be a good
conductor. It is the earths abundance and availability that make it an
indispensable component of a properly functioning electrical system.

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Measurements

Earth resistance for different depths of insertion of the earth electrode

Depth of electrode

Earth resistance

L(m)

R()

0.1

360

0.2

320

0.3

320

0.4

300

0.5

280

0.6

320

Variation of the resistance with depth of electrode.

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Fig
ure 1.1-Earth resistance vs depth of electrode

Earth resistance for different distances from the earth electrode

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Distance from the earth

electrode
L(m)

Earth resistance

0.5

220

1.0

240

1.5

260

2.0

270

2.5

280

3.0

280

3.5

280

280

4.5

280

280

5.5

280

280

6.5

280

280

7.5

280

280

8.5

280

280

9.5

280

10

280

10.5

280

11

280

11.5

280

12

280

12.5

280

13

280

R()

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Large Area Measurement Of Earth Resistance.

Figure1.2-Earth resistance vs distance for a large area

Earth resistance ()

CE=5m,
vary the distance of potential electrode with 0.5m steps and measured the earth
resistance for different distances.
Distance from the earth
electrode
L(m)

Earth resistance

0.5

240

1.0

260

1.5

280

R()

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280

2.5

280

300

3.5

300

320

4.5

340

5.0

400

Overlapping Area.

Figure1.3-Earth resistance vs distance for an overlapping area

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Discussion

The measurement of ground resistance for an earth electrode system is very

important. It should be done when the electrode is first installed, and then at
periodic intervals thereafter. This ensures that the resistance-to-ground does not
increase over time. There are two (2) methods for testing an electrical grounding
system. The first is the 3-point or Fall-of- Potential method and the second is the
Induced Frequency test or clamp-on method. The 3-point test requires complete
isolation from the power utility. Not just power isolation, but also removal of any
neutral or other such ground connections extending outside the grounding
system. This test is the most suitable test for large grounding systems and is also
suitable for small electrodes. The induced frequency test can be performed while
power is on and actually requires the utility to be connected to the grounding
system under test. This test is accurate only for small electrodes, as it uses
frequencies in the kilohertz range, which see long conductors as inductive
chokes and therefore do not reflect the 60 Hz resistance of the entire grounding
system.The most common method of measuring ground resistance uses the fall
of potential principle of alternating current of 50 Hz or some higher frequency
circulating between an auxiliary electrode and the ground electrode under the
test. With reference to fall of potential, three points of contact are made with the
soil. One is the connection to the electrode under test. The other two are probes
that the operator places in the soil, one for current and the other for potential.
The test set acts as a current source, and the current probe establishes a circuit
through the soil via the electrode under test. The potential probe then senses the
voltage gradient established by the test current against the local soil resistance.
With current and voltage drop accurately measured, the test set simply uses
Ohms law to calculate and display the resistance.This method measures
grounding electrode resistance based upon the principle of potential drop across
the resistance. It also uses two auxiliary electrodes (one current rod and the
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other potential rod) that are placed at a sufficient distance from the test
electrodes: a current of known magnitude is passed through the electrode under
the test and one of the auxiliary electrodes (current rod). The drop in potential
between the electrode under the test and the second auxiliary electrode
(potential rod) is measured. The ratio of the voltage drop (V) to the known
current (I) will indicate the resistance of the grounding circuit. Either a dc or ac
voltage source may be used for conducting this test.

Some problems and errors may be encountered with this method: Stray currents
in earth may cause voltmeter readings to be either high or low. The resistance of
auxiliary electrode and electrical leads may introduce errors in the voltmeter
readings. This error can be minimized by using a voltmeter of high impedance
value. To avoid errors due to galvanic currents in the earth, most ground test
instruments use an AC current source.
When making a test where sufficient spacing exists, the instrument will read zero
or very near zero when the P potential probe is placed near the ground-undertest. Finally as the potential probe approaches the remote current electrode, the
resistance reading will rise dramatically. But in here we couldnt achieved that as
the probe was not long enough to take further measurements. So it stays at
300.When we consider about two graphs that we obtained from the measured
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results the figure shows the idle one than the figure . as it gradually increasing
the earth resistance and stay same value for a while and again increasing. As I
mentioned above we couldnt find the values for the figure Some important facts
were identified during doing this practical.
There are some effects when measuring earth resistance,
moisture in the soil, temperature are some of them. In soil, conduction of current
is largely electrolytic. Therefore, the amount of moisture and salt content of soil
radically affects its resistivity. The amount of water in the soil varies, of course,
with the weather, time of year, nature of sub-soil, and depth of the permanent
water. Resistance is gradually decreasing when the level of moisture getting
higher. Not much information has been collected on the effects of temperature.
Two facts lead to the logical conclusion that an increase in temperature will
decrease resistivity. (1) Water present in soil mostly determines the resistivity,
and (2) an increase in temperature markedly decreases the resistivity of water.
The shortcut test is made by simply connecting a piece of test equipment
between the test electrode and a remote ground, and then measuring a loop
resistance. The method is easy, but it loses accuracy because all the other
elements in the loop are part of the measurement. It is fraught with the danger
of inaccuracy because the remote probe must be of negligible resistance, which
may not be the case. The clamp-on test avoids this problem by relying on
multiple return paths, which are in parallel with each other. By the Law of Parallel
Resistances, the return resistance virtually cancels out, and the tester measures
only the resistance of the soil.

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