BONDING

Bond means an electrical

connection between two or
more conductors or non current
carrying metallic parts of
traction masts or structures or
supports and rails.

Transverse Bond It means a bond
between two rails of a track or two
rails of adjacent tracks.

Longitudinal Bond It is an electrical
connection across a rail joint
between consecutive lengths of rails.
TYPES OF BOND
Impedance Bond It is a bond
installed by signal and telecom
department, which provides a low
impedance path for the traction
return current and relatively high
impedance path for track circuit
current.


Fig.1. Impedance Bond
Fig.2. Impedance Bond
Fig.3. Impedance Bond
Structure Bond Bond
connecting the non-current
carrying metallic parts of
traction mast or structure or
support to the traction rail.
Fig: Structure Bond
Signal bond It is an electrical
connection across a rail joint,
provided by the Signalling &
Telecommunication Department,
to facilitate flow of track circuit
current.



Terminal Bond It allows delimiting
the track circuit at a boundary with an
insulated Rail joints.

Cross Bond It means a bond
between two rails of a track or two
rails of adjacent tracks. It is also called
a transverse bond.

INTEGRAL TRANSVERSAL LINK ( ITL )

It is interconnection of Dn line OPC,
BEC and Up line OPC, BEC and tracks
direct or through impedance bond.

This shall be provided at an
interval of 1 Km or less than one km.
TYPICAL ARRANGEMENT
INTEGRAL TRANSVERSE LINK (ITL)
ABB LIMITED
ALTERNATE ARRANGEMENT
INTEGRAL TRANSVERSE LINK ( TYPICAL LOCATION AT SUBHASH NAGAR FP)
AT SUBHASH NAGAR FP
OVERHEAD PROTECTION CABLE (OPC)
It is an ACSR conductor run on traction masts or
structures or supports and clamped to their
metallic parts/supports and connected to earth
through ITL.
ACSR conductor consists of 7 steel wires and 12
aluminium wires each 2.5 mm dia .
Its cross sectional area is 93.3 sq mm and
overall diameter is 12.5mm.
Its tension should be 400kgf.
BURIED EARTH CABLE (BEC)
It is a flexible Copper Conductors having 7 strands
each of 2.5 mm ,35 sq mm x-sectional area and over
all dia of 7.5 mm.

It is run along the viaduct with which all the
metallic reinforcement steel bars of via duct, piers
parapet and equipments at viaduct are connected
to maintain proper earthing.

It is connected to earth to earth grid of Auxiliary
substation through ITL

Now replaced by ACSR conductor used as OPC.
PLINTH OR CONTINUITY JUMPER
An insulated stranded flexible copper
conductors of approx.35 sq mm is used for
inter connecting two track plinth to maintain
continuity.

The each end of deck is connected with the
BEC for proper earthing.

EARTHING
OF
ELECTRICL
SYSTEM
WHAT IS EARTHING?
Earthing is an essential requirement to drain the potential
deposition on any machine frame, structure, support,
electrical installation etc due to poor insulation for
achieving a safe working upon.
E
E
FAULT CURRENT THROUGH EARTH
LINK
FUSE
R
Y
B
N
230V
FAULT TO
EARTH
IN WINDING
WHY EARTHING?
Earthing is designed primarily to preserve the security
of the system by ensuring that the potential on each
conductor is restricted to such a value as is consistent
with the level of insulation applied.
Earthing shall generally be carried out in accordance
with the requirement of Indian Electricity rules
1956(I.E.Rule 2003) & IS 30431987.

OBJECTIVE OF EARTHING
It should stabilise circuit potential with respect to
ground potential and limit the potential rise.
It should protect men & materials from injury or
damage due to over voltage or touching.
It should provide a low impedance path to fault
currents to ensure prompt & consistent operation of
protective devices.
It should keep the maximum voltage gradient
along the surface inside & around the substation
within safe limits during ground fault.

It should protect underground cables from
overall ground potential rise & voltage gradient
during ground fault in the system.

IMPORTANT I.E. RULE
RELATED TO EARTHING:
RULE No: 33.
Earth terminal on consumers premises.
RULE No: 61.
(A) MAX: PERMISSIBLE RESISTANCE OF
EARTHING SYSTEM.
Large power station: - 0.5 ohms.
Major sub-station: - 1.0 ohms.
Small sub-station: - 2.0 ohms.
In all other cases : - 8.0 ohms.
The earth continuity: - 1.0 ohms.
inside an installation
(B) CONNECTION WITH EARTH
Earthing of neutral conductor of a 3-phase, 4-wire
system.
Earthing of all metal casing / covering of electric supply
lines or apparatus.
Testing of such earth resistance not less than once in
every two years during a dry day of a dry season shall
be conducted and recorded.
Test results should be recorded and shall be made
available to the EIG or Assisting officer to EIG, when
required.
RULE No: 67.
CONNECTION TO EARTH
All equipments associated with HV /EHV installation,
shall be earthed by not less than two distinct and
separate connection with the earth having its own
electrode, except an earth mat

Testing of such earth resistance not less than once in
every year during a dry day of a dry season shall be
conducted & recorded.
RULE No: 90. EARTHING
In distribution system, all metal supports and all
reinforced/pre-stressed cement concrete supports of
overhead line and and metallic fittings attached shall be
permanently and effectively earthed.
Each stay wire shall be similarly earthed, unless
insulators have been provided in it at a height not less
than three mtrs from the ground.
Every 5th pole as a minimum shall be grounded, if the
foundations are not cements concrete blocks.

RULE No: 91.
SAFETY AND PROTECTIVE
DEVICE
Every overhead line erected over any part of street or
public place shall be protected with a device, approved
by the EIG, for rendering the line electrically harmless
in case it brakes.

The owner of every high and extra high overhead line,
shall be protected to the satisfaction of the EIG, to
prevent unauthorised persons from ascending any of
the supports of such overhead lines.

RULE No: 92.
PROTECTION AGAINST LIGHTENING
The owner of every overhead line which is so exposed
, as may be liable to injury from lightening, shall
adopted efficient means for diverting to earth, any
electrical surge during lightening.

The earthing lead for any lightening arrester shall not
pass through any iron or steel pipe but shall be taken
as directed as possible from the lightening arrester to a
separate earthing electrode / mat.
DISTINCTION BETWEEN
GROUNDING AND EARTHING
Grounding: Grounding implies connection of current
carrying parts to ground.It is mostly either generator or
transformer neutral. Hence it is popularly called neutral
grounding.

Grounding is for equipment safety.

In case of resistance grounding system, it limits the core
damage in stator of rotating machines. In case of solidly
grounded system, substantial ground fault current flows
enabling sensitive fault detection and fast clearance.


Earthing: Earthing implies connection of non current
carrying parts to ground like metallic enclosures.

Earthing is for human safety.

Under balanced operating condition of power systems,
earthing system does not play any role. But under any
ground fault condition, it enables the ground fault
current to return back to the source without endengering
human safety.

Generator
Transformer
NG NG
Earthing
Neutral Grounding and Earthling

Earth As Conductor:
Resistivity() of earth is typically 100O-M.
Resistivity() of copper is 1.7x 10
-8
O-M.
Resistivity() of G. I. is 1.7x 10
-7
O-M.
Take as reference, 25x4mm copper strip.
To obtain the same resistance, the size of G.I. Will be65x10mm.
The corresponding figure for earth is 800x800 meters (158
acres.)
Hence, it shows metallic conductor is a preferred alternative
conductor to earth to bring the fault current back to source.

EARTH AS CONDUCTOR
Generator
Transformer
NG NG
Earthing
ELECTROD RESISTANCE TO EARTH
Conventional practice by Electrical engineer to measure
the earth resistance is by using ohms law.
This is similar to CT, where the flow of primary current
results in voltage appearing across CT secondary. Which
drives the current through the connected relay(burden).
For electrode resistance to earth, current is injected to earth
by electrode and electric field travels through the earth.The
voltage appears at certain distance from electrode and the
resulting impedance is electrode resistance to earth.
I
F
CT R V
x
v
1
Resistance area of driven earth rod
HEMISPHERICAL ELECTORD
Consider a hemispherical electrode used for injection of
current.Current flows through a series of hemispherical
shells of earth of continuously increasing cross section.
The resistance offered by earth to spread of electrical field
is given by:
RX = } dX / 2 tX
2.
The resistance as a function of distance from electrode.
The most interesting aspect is that almost 95% of final
resistance is contributed by soil within 5meters of the
electrode.
dx
1
x
Spherical shells
Resistance to earth of hemispherical electrode
Now consider two location A & B 100 Km apart from each
other with respect to earth grids.Assume current is
discharged at A. Only the soil within first 5 to 10 meters
from A offers substantial resistance.
The resistance offered by earth subsequently to reach B is
very minimal.
This the reason of our practice to treat earth pits with lime ,
charcoal, & watering the pits. This reduces the resistance of
the soil locally around the earth electrode. As the resistance
away from the earth electrode is minimal.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
5
10 9 8
7
6
2
1
3
4
4(-100MM)Radius Hemi -sphere
Distance in Met.
R
e
s
i
s
t
a
n
c
e

i
n

%

RESISTANCE TO EARTH OF HEMISPHERICAL ELECTRODE RESISTANCE TO EARTH OF HEMISPHERICAL ELECTRODE
INFLUENCING FACTORS FOR ELECTRODE
RESISTANCE
The major factor is the length.
Diameter or width(Cross section) has very minor influence.
The resistance of pipe electrode is given by:-
R = ( / 2 tL) [ L
N
{ 8L / ( x 2.7183)}].
Where, L = Length in Met.(pipe)
L
N
=Nominal length(buried conductor)
= Diameter in Met
Let, consider the case of a length = 6 Met.
For = 2.5Cm, R = 16.4O .
For = 10 Cm, R = 15.3O.
A horizontal earth strip of 75x10mm Cu and 45x10mm GI
both of same length will offer almost same electrode
resistance.
Other interesting observation is that the electrode resistance
is not much dependent on type of electrode materials like
Cu,Al or GI.Resistance is the function of physical
dimension, mainly length.
So, it is observed that 300% increase in diameter, resistance
decreases by app: 7% only.
PLATE ELECTRODE
In early days only plate electrode were used.
It was presumed that to get low electrode resistance to
earth,surface area should be large as per conventional ohms
law resistance.
In some cases efforts were made to cover the entire site
with plate electrode.
One solid plate & another annular ring both with same
radius of 50cm are taken for using as earth electrode.
Calculation shows that resistance to earth in both the cases
is 29.2 O.
Resistance for strip or horizontal wire electrode is
measured by RYDERs formula:-
R = ( / 2 tL) [ L
N
(8L/T)+L
N
(L/h)- 2
+(2h/L)-(h
2
/L
2
)].
Where,
L = Length in Met.(electrode)
L
N
=Nominal length(buried conductor)
h = Depth in Met.
T = Width in Met.(for strip).
= 2 x diameter in Met.(for wire)
1 MET
5 CM
50 CM
50 CM
RESISTANCE TO EARTH OF PLATE ELECTRODE
Similarly, one plate electrode & one strip electrode of
same volume are taken. But resistance to earth of plate
electrode is almost three times that of strip electrode.
The linear dimension of plate electrode is perimeter,
i.e,4M., where as for strip electrode is 13M.
Hence, hypothesis is that electrode resistance is
dominated by length of the electrode buried.
Thus, it is concluded that plate electrode is inefficient.
1 M

75 mmX 8 mm X 13.3M
0.008M
3
R
EL
= 9. 5
1 M
P =100 -M

1 M X 1M X 8 mm
0.008M
3
R
EL
= 26..2
PARALLEL ELECTRODES
To obtain low effective earth grid resistance, electrodes are
connected in parallel. So that the total resistance will be half
of individual resistance.
This is again due to our extrapolation of conventional ohms
law concept. But it is true only when the separation
distance between electrodes are adequate.
For discharging the field effectively, each electrode needs
exclusive soil below it. If the rods are too close, resistance
area of one electrode will interfere with that of other and
expected gain is not realised. As a thumb rule if the rod
length is L, separation distance shall be 2L.
I
Over lapping resistance areas of two earth rods
L
Separation distance
2L
I
SEQUENCE IMPEDANCE TRANSMISSION LINE
The values can be obtained from any line parameter
evaluation program considering one circuit or both
circuit. S/C D/C
ZPOS(ohm/Km) 0.15 + j 0.41 0.08 + j 0.22
ZZERO(ohm/Km)0.37 + j 1.29 0.29 + j 1.04
Positive sequence impedance of D/C line is almost 0.5
times of S/C as expected. But Zero sequence impedance
of D/C line is only about 0.8 times of S/C line.This is
because positive sequence does not involve earth return
but zero sequence involves earth return.
Only if the separation distance is large enough, they will
behave like two single circuit line. This is seldom
achieved in practice.
RESISTANCE OF EARTH GRID
In EHV switchyard, earthing grid is formed by a mesh
of horizontal strip electrode & vertical rod electrode.
The resistance to earth of the entire grid is calculated
by SVERAK formula :
R
G
= |C
1
+C
2
{ 1+(1/C
3
) } |.
C
1
= 1/L; C
2
= 1/ \ 20A ; C
3
= 1+ h \ 20/A.
A = Area of earthing grid.
L = total length of buried conductor including
rod electrode in Meter.
= resisvity in ohm-meter.
h
Switchyard earthing grid
METHODS TO REDUCE ELECTRODE
RESISTANCE TO EARTH
1.To reduce soil resistivity() to a low value.
Typical values for different type of soil:
Soil type Wet Moist Dry Bed rock
( in O-M) 10 100 1000 10,000
Treatment of soil--- such as watering, adding cock,
wood charcoal, bentonite clay, common salt.
After treatment there is a gradual decrease in soil
resistivity, However there will be gradual increase in soil
resistivity with passage of time as salt is washed away by
continual water seepage.
200
160
120
80
40
0
0
25
40 35
30 10
5
15 20
R
e
s
i
s
t
a
n
c
e

,
o
h
m
-
M
e
t
Months
Before Treatment

EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL TREATMENT EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL TREATMENT
After Treatment
After
Retreatment
Second method is to increase the length of
buried conductor to the maximum extent
possible, the increase in cost has to be borne at
the beginning budget.
If parallel electrodes are considered for
individual earth pits to get low resistance, it
must be emphasized that unless sufficient
spacing exists between electrodes,desired
reduction in earth resistance is not realized in
practice.
ELECTRODE SIZING
The choices for materials & size are only with respect to the
amount of fault current to be discharged to earth.
The current density(A/mm2)as per IS-3043.
Materials Cu Al GI
0.5 sec rating 290 178 113
1 sec rating 205 126 80
Earthing grid for EHV switchyards are designed for 0.5 sec duty
& for others 1sec duty is selected.
HUMAN ELEMENT & ELECTRIC SHOCK
Electric shock is possible only when the human body
bridges two points of unequal potential.
This is the reason why a bird can sit comfortably on a220kv
line conductor without getting electrocuted as the voltage
between its leg (IR drop) is insignificant.
Max: tolerable current for human body is 160mA for one
second.If this limit exceeds, it will result in death due to
ventricular fibrillation(heart attack)
Allowable body current IB(Amperes) for two body weights,
as per IEEE Std:-80. is given:
IB = 0.116/ \T
S
for body weights of 50kg.
= 0.157 / \T
S
for body weight of 70kg.
T
S
=

duration of current exposure (fault clearance time).
T
S
IB ( 50kg) IB (70kg).
0.2sec 259mA 351mA.
0.5sec 164mA 222mA.
1.0sec 116mA 157mA.
Average value for human body resistance under dry
condition is 8 to 9k-ohms. But for design purpose, assumed
as 1k-ohm.
GROUND POTENTIAL RISE
Ground potential rise(GPR) is the voltage to which the
earth mat is going to rise when it discharges the
current.
If I
G
is the current discharge to earth & R
G
is the
earth grid resistance,
GPR = I
G
X R
G
,
I
G
= K x I
F
( I
F
is the fault current).
I
G
is always not equal to fault current.
FAULT IS WITHIN THE SWITCHYARD & TRANSFORMER
CONNECTION IS STAR-DELTA.
Here, entire fault current is discharged to earth to return to
source 2. In this case K = 1.
Source 2 Source 1
Switchyard
I
F
I
F
I
G
= I
F
Fault within sub-station (star-delta) Fault within sub-station (star-delta)
FAULT IS WITHIN THE SWITCHYARD & TRANSFORMER IS
CONNECTED IN DELTA- STAR.
Part of the fault current (I
F1
) returns to local transformer via metallic
conductor ( earth mat) and does not contribute to GPR. The other part
(I
F2
) is discharged to earth to return to source2 and contributes to GPR.
In this case, K<1.
Fault within sub-station (delta-star)
Source 2 Source 1
Switchyard
I
F
I
F2
I
G
= I
F2
I
F1
I
F1
FAULT IS ON TRANSMISSION LINE & TRANSFORMER
CONNECTION IS DELTA-STAR.
Part of fault current (IF1) returns to transformer at source 1 via earth & contributes
to GPR. The other part IF2 returns to source2 via earth & contributes to GPR at the
other switch yard. Where K <1.
. .
Fault on transmission line Fault on transmission line
Source 2 Source 1
Switchyard
I
F
I
F2
I
G
= I
F1
I
F1
I
G
= I
F2
STEP & TOUCH POTENTIAL
Step & touch potential refer to the potential experienced by a
person standing on a surface when earth mat buried, say
750mm, below surface has risen to GPR.
Step potential is the difference in surface potential experienced
by a person bridging a distance of 1 meter with his feet
without contacting any other grounded object.
Touch potential is the difference between GPR & the surface
potential at the point where person is standing, while his hand
is in contact with grounded structure.
Touch and step potentials
I
G
R
GPF
= 2R
R
GPF
= R/2
R R R R
Gravel
V
TOUCH
V
TSTEP
Soil
If resistance offered by each foot is R,
Then for step potential the resistance is 2R
while for touch potential is R/2
Touch potential is the difference between
GPR & surface potential while step
potential is the difference between two
surface potential
EFFECT OF THIN LAYER OF
CRUSHED ROCK
In outdoor switchyard,a thin layer of crushed
rock is spread on the surface.
The resistivity of gravel ( ) is 2000 O-M while
that of soil is 100 O-M. Since of gravel is high ,
only a high voltage can force the current through
the body to cause injuries. The gravel act like
insulator & throws the electric field generated
by GPR back to soil.