Modelling grounding system filled with natural enhancement material based on electric field and electric potential

Grounding system is the connection of electrical connection to the earth ground by a wire or other conductor. The main purpose of the grounding system is to protect humans, electrical appliances and buildings from electrical shock due to lightning or another form of electricity that hazardous. Therefore, to achieve this goal, the fundamental part must be taken into account. In brief, few grounding systems were modeled, which consist of full concrete, three-quarter concrete, half-concrete and a quarter concrete with Grounding Enhancement Material (GEM) has been designed using FEM software. The GEM used is coal fly ashes and bentonite. There are two types of analyses that were carried out which are electric field analysis and electric potential analysis. First is the electric field analysis. For the electric field analysis part, the electric field value obtained from all the grounding systems modeled with both GEM (fly ash and bentonite) at position top and position bottom was measured and compared to evaluate the best grounding system model at both positions. This is because, a lower electric field is able to provide the lowest impedance path to the ground. However, the result obtained for the grounding system model with bentonite is better than the grounding system model with fly ash in terms of lower electric field. Therefore, for the measured electric field at position top, the results clearly show that full concrete with bentonite obtained the lowest electric field value. Meanwhile, for the measured electric field at position bottom, a quarter concrete with bentonite is the most suitable grounding system model compared to the other grounding system model. This research study also analyzes the performance of the electric potential of the injected impulse current using the Heidler model on different cases of the grounding system model. For injected impulse on grounding system with both GEM fly ash and bentonite, all concrete model shows that full concrete obtained the lowest electric potential followed by three-quarter concrete, half concrete, a quarter concrete and the highest electric potential is reference grounding system. However, the result obtained for the grounding system model with bentonite is better than the grounding system model with fly ash in terms of lower electric potential. This result clearly shows that full concrete with bentonite is the most suitable concrete case to withstand the Heidler lightning impulse current compared to the others. In conclusion, the overall result obtained shows that the performance of the grounding system with bentonite is better than the groundings system with fly ash in terms of lowered electric field and electric potential value. Therefore, it can be concluded that full concrete with bentonite is the best grounding system model to be installed at the grounding site.