Parallel computing aided design of earthing systems for electrical substations in non homogeneous soil models

Abstract

[Abstract] An accurate design of grounding systems is essential to assure the safety of the persons, to protect the equipment and to avoid interruptions in the power supply. In order to attain these targets, the equivalent electrical resistance of the system and the potential distribution on the earth surface in fault conditions are necessary to compute. In this paper, it is presented a numerical approach for grounding analysis embedded in stratified soils and its implementation in a high-perfomance parallel computer. The feasibility of this system is shown with its application to the analysis of a real grounding system in a layered soil.