Analysis of DC grounding systems

A theoretical error analysis of methods for analyzing grounding systems constructed from copper or galvanized steel conductors of small diameter shows that they are not suitable for application to DC grounding systems (or electrodes) and buried metallic pipes of large cross section. A suitable method is presented along with validation data and typical results. The advantages of the proposed method are the accurate computation of touch and step voltages for large-cross-section electrodes and the accurate computation of electrode maximum current density. The method has been implemented in a computer code under the symbolic name DCGRND