Analytical Modeling of a Transient Current Flowing Along the Horizontal Grounding Electrode

This paper deals with an analytical solution of the time domain Pocklington integro-differential equation for the transient current flowing along the horizontal grounding electrode of finite length. The electrode is excited with an equivalent current source representing the lightning strike current. Presence of the earth-air interface is taken into account through the formulation, via simplified reflection coefficient arising from the modified image theory. The analytical solution is carried out using the Laplace transform and the Cauchy residue theorem, respectively. Results obtained by the analytical solution are compared to those calculated using numerical solution of the corresponding frequency domain Pocklington equation in conjunction with the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform. The results obtained via different methods agree satisfactorily.