Grounding Grid Design

Soil resistivity data was gathered at and around the construction site of the proposed train station at different depths.  I made a note in the train station construction documents so that when construction began the soil resistivity would be tested again to either confirm or contradict the results of the statistical study I created in excel below:

With the results of the soil resistivity statistical study I used excel solver and a grounding grid model based on IEEE series 100 to minimize the amount of copper used in the grounding grid while at the same time maintaining the E-Touch and E-Step values below a threshold to reduce the risk of injury during a fault.

Mathematical Modeling

Mathematical models and simulation models can take many forms that vary in complexity, they are used to answer simple questions during the preliminary design.  “Will this work?” “Is this a feasible solution? “ “How much money can I make?”…with analysis they allow decision makers to come to a conclusion on a system in isolation, or the system as a whole, depending on the models complexity.  Often a yes or no answer cannot be determined, but initial patterns and tendencies of the system may be observed and catastrophic problems may be mitigated or avoided completely.