Title: Grounding resistance measurement using vertically driven rods near residential areas

Authors: Md. Abdus Salam

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Institute Technology Brunei, Jalan Tungku Link, BE1410, Brunei Darussalam

Abstract: Soil resistivity is usually measured at the selected site either for new installation or in the existing grounding system. In this paper, soil resistivity and grounding resistance are measured at the four selected sites of the Lambak Kanan, a residential area of Brunei Darussalam. The measured soil resistivities are then compared with the resistivities calculated by CYM GRD software and the rms errors are found to be 2.51%, 5.35% and 2.86% for the sites 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Grounding resistance has been measured using both aluminium and copper rods driven vertically into the soil. The minimum values of grounding resistance using aluminium and copper rods are found to be 15.11 Ω and 13.38 Ω, 15.33 Ω and 10.93 Ω, 21.75 Ω and 21.31 Ω for sites 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Keywords: soil resistivity; four-pole method; rms error; copper rods; aluminium rods; fall-of-potential method; grounding resistance measurement; vertically driven rods; residential areas; Brunei Darussalam.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEC.2013.054852

International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion, 2013 Vol.4 No.3, pp.238 - 250

Received: 18 Feb 2012
Accepted: 26 May 2012
Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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