Estimation of Effective Length of Type-A Grounding System According to IEC 62305-3 Using a Machine Learning Regression Model

Abstract

Two types of grounding systems are recommended for use in the international standard IEC 62305-3, Part 3: Physical damage to structures and life hazard. One of these is a radial-based grounding system (type-A), which is used in soil resistivities of up to 3000 Ωm and is considered in this paper. It is a well-known fact that during lightning strikes, only a part of the grounding wire contributes to dissipating the lightning current into the surrounding soil. This effective part of the grounding system depends on several features, such as soil resistivity, burial depth, and rise time of the dissipated lightning current. The effect of all of these features on the effective length of the type-A grounding system is explored in this paper. A suitable supervised machine learning regression model is developed, which will enable readers to accurately approximate the effective length of the type-A grounding system for realistic values of input features. The trained model in the paper yielded an R2 value of 0.99998 on the test set. In addition, two simple mathematical formulas are also provided, which produce similar but less accurate results (R2 values of 0.989883 and 0.998557, respectively).

Dino Lovrić

Associate Professor | Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering and Modelling

Associate professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Split, with reserch focused on the development of numerical models of grounding systems in various types of soil, particularly in scenarios involving the dissipation of alternating current and transient currents caused by lightning strikes or switching overvoltages, also involved in developing models of dynamic and transient processes in power systems using modern numerical methods.

Ivan Krolo

Assistant Professor | Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering and Modelling

Researcher and assistant professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture in Split, with research focus on the development of numerical models for grounding systems and issues related to electrical safety in low-voltage and high-voltage systems.

Ivica Jurić-Grgić

Full Professor | Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering and Modelling

Researcher and full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture in Split. His research focuses on numerical modeling of electromagnetic transients in power systems, with particular emphasis on the development of advanced numerical methods for analyzing electromagnetic transients in multi-conductor transmission lines. His work includes the application of finite element techniques for transient stability analysis of power systems, as well as the enhancement of models for harmonic and transient analysis of grounding systems.