Analysis on Heat Transfer Distribution of Grounding System Using Finite Element Method

Grounding system is the most important part of the electrical power system in the building or other electrical devices as protection to human and their property when lightning strike occur. The main objective of this research is to analyse on heat transfer distribution on grounding system depends on few factors that will affected the effectiveness of the grounding system such as type of electrode, width and length of electrode, value of peak current and condition of soil. In order to sustain the effectiveness of grounding system the heat and energy must be deviated to ground and ensure that the low resistance of the grounding system. Finite Element Method (FEM) is used with Joule Heating physics to represent the behavior of the heat transfer. COMSOL Multiphysics programming is utilized as simulation to observe the execution of heat transfer by electrode to the soil by changing the sort of electrode material and four others input parameters as specified previously. Grounding system performance is not only depending on the effectiveness of the electrode but also the condition of the soil to perform the effectiveness of grounding system. The grounding system is modelled in 3 Dimension (3-D). The result shows that the best electrode that can distributed the heat to the soil is copper due to highest electrical conductivity compared to stainless steel and carbon graphite.