Diagnosis for Conductor Breaks of Grounding Grids Based on the Wire Loop Method of the Transient Electromagnetic Method

Abstract

The wire loop method of the transient electromagnetic (TEM) method is used to nondestructively detect conductor breaks of grounding grid. For this purpose, grounding grids serve as an underground wire loop, and the measuring points are arranged on the ground. At each measuring point, a receiving loop is employed to detect the electromagnetic response generated by transmitting the current of the transmitting loop. Conductor breaks can be diagnosed by analyzing the slices of the electromagnetic response. We study the effect of loop size and height difference through the simulation of an intact 2×2 grounding grid, confirming that it is easier to obtain the topological structure using a small transmitting loop and a small height difference. Furthermore, simulations of an intact 4×4 grounding grid and grids with different locations of conductor breaks are also conducted with a small transmitting loop. It is easy to distinguish the topological structure of the grounding grid and the locations of conductor breaks. Finally, the detection method is applied experimentally. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method is an effective technique for conductor break diagnosis.