Comparative field assessment of grounding enhancement material for electrical earthing system

Lim Zhe Kang, Siow Chun Lim, Usman Muhammad, Fazlul Aman, Normiza Mohamad Nor

Abstract


Grounding enhancement material (GEM) is used to lower the earthing resistance value of a given earthing system. In this paper, a commercially available GEM is experimented at the field alongside with Sodium Chloride, Copper II Sulphate and planting soil. The well established Wenner’s 4 pole method and fall of potential method was employed to measure the soil resistivity and earthing resistance respectively. It was found that the salts i.e., Sodium Chloride and Copper II Sulphate are superior in reducing the earthing resistance as reduction of more than 85% were observed. However, the commercial GEM has exhibited the most stable earthing resistance value over a period of 101 days, exhibiting the lowest standard deviation. This seems to suggest that the commercial GEM has superior moisture retention capability. This study also proven that Sodium Chloride can be dissolved by heavy downpour and replenishing it periodically is needed in a tropical country like Malaysia with regular thunderstorms and heavy downpours.

Keywords


Bentonite; Earthing electrode; Earthing resistance; Grounding enhancement material; Soil resistivity

Full Text:

PDF


DOI: https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v13i5.7303

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Bulletin of EEI Stats

Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (BEEI)
ISSN: 2089-3191, e-ISSN: 2302-9285
This journal is published by the Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science (IAES) in collaboration with Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama (IPMU).