The Effect of Images on Surface Potential and Resistance Calculation of Grounding Systems

In the grounding systems with a two layers soil, the calculation of the surface potential using the image method is sometimes impossible due to singularities, avoiding researchers to use the method for electrodes in the bottom layer. In the literature this problem solution is refereed as unreliable or solved with other more complex methods. This paper presents a new approach to calculate the surface potentials in a two layer soil, for electrodes in the bottom layer, when images are at surface. The singularities in computing surface voltage, when the first image upwards lies at surface, are analysed and it's shown that a small change in top layer thickness allows an approximate solution. Surface potentials due to grid conductor are also considered and the values of resistance are compared with those from other methodologies. Singularities for a ground rod that crosses the two layers are also treated. The obtained values of resistance are not satisfactory, due to lower segments images that overlap the upper segments. This paper also proposes shifting the surface of the upper part of the ground rod, in the upper layer, or taking the modulus of the mutual resistance, to overcome this difficulty.