High precision software packages for grounding analysis and conductive coupling studies

RESAP FCDIST MALT MALZ

AutoGroundDesign AutoGrid Pro SESShield-2D

Technical Description

MultiGroundZ and MultiGroundZ+ are powerful and high precision software packages dedicated to grounding analyses and conductive coupling studies that can go well beyond the assumption of conductor equipotentiality. Taking into account the complex impedance of conductors, the MultiGroundZ software package provides accurate results for large grounding systems even in extremely low resistivity soil or water, as well as accurately modeling long bare or coated conductors such as pipelines and counterpoises. The RESAP, MALT, MALZ and FCDIST computation modules make up the core of these software packages.

Features

• Soil resistivity measurement interpretation and fault current distribution calculation.
• Touch and Step voltages, and GPR, on a network of any number of independently energized coated or uncoated conductors, interconnected or network, accounting for the complex frequency-dependent impedance of conductors from DC to MHz.
• Accurate in highly complex soil models, with any resistivity and for any size grounding system:
  • Any number of horizontal or vertical soil layers.
  • Spherical, spheroidal, vertical or horizontal cylindrical soil models.
  • Incorporate multiple localized soil inhomogeneities (finite soil volumes) within any horizontal multilayer soil.
• Design your grounding system with a fully interactive 3D CAD module, either from scratch, or imported from DWG, DXF or KML file formats.
• Includes all capabilities of the MultiGround software package.

Put MultiGroundZ to work

• Carry out and interpret resistivity measurements using Wenner, Schlumberger, or Dipole-Dipole techniques or select your own arbitrary electrode spacing configuration. Select horizontal, vertical or exponential multilayered soil structures. No matter the complexity of the soil, the grounding module will handle it.
• Determine the fault current distribution between grounding systems and overhead ground wires, skywires, counterpoises, and other metallic paths.
• Analyze complex power system ground networks composed of arbitrarily oriented, coated or bare conductors and metallic plates located in complex soils. Embed arbitrary finite volumes having different resistivities in horizontally layered soils, such as water upstream and downstream of a dam.

  

• Multiple current injections, each with its own magnitude and phase angle, into different parts of each grounding system modeled, in order to account for circulating currents and the stress voltages they induce.
• Apply a pre-calculated emf to incorporate induction effects into the grounding calculation.
• Software that neglects voltage drops in grid conductors can dramatically underestimate grounding requirements near high voltage equipment and overestimate grounding requirements everywhere else.

  

• By accounting for conductor impedances, MultiGroundZ provides improved safety and reduced construction costs. MultiGroundZ also allows you to estimate voltage stresses on control cables running between two parts of an installation.
• Modeling of coated conductors, such as pipelines and insulated cables. This means that you can calculate electrical potentials transferred to nearby buried pipes, associated coating stress or touch voltages, and potentials transferred by these pipes to remote locations. You can also correctly account for the grounding afforded by pipelines. These can easily reduce the ground impedance of a grounding grid by an order of magnitude and eliminate what might otherwise appear to be a major problem.
• High frequency impedance (MHz) of the grounding system.
• Magnetic field calculation (above grade).
• Interpret ground resistance measurements made using the Fall-of-Potential method and other techniques.
• You can automatically generate safety tables of touch and step voltages determined according to national, international or your own specific standards, as well as plots of grid "hotspots," to help you quickly refine your grounding designs.
• You can very easily focus on dangerous zones and identify overdesigned regions to optimize your final design.

MultiGroundZ+

MultiGroundZ+ is a version of MultiGroundZ that has been extended to include the MultiLines, Right-of-Way Pro and CorrCAD software packages thereby adding the TRALIN and SPLITS computation modules.

MultiGroundZ+:

• Determines inductive and capacitive interference between energized and non-energized conductors or metallic paths sharing the same right-of-way.
• Computes conductor and cable constants (parameters) and capacitive and electromagnetic induction effects.
• Develops detailed circuit models to calculate load and short-circuit current distributions in every section of a multi-conductor, multi-phase power network, whether balanced or not.
• Analyzes complex, multi-phase, multi-winding transformers in full detail. Built-in single-phase and 3-phase multi-winding transformer models, including autotransformers, are also available.

These additions give MultiGroundZ+ the capabilities of the Right-of-Way Pro state-of-the-art AC Interference analysis software package and the capabilities of the CorrCAD software package.

The powerful integrated Right-of-Way Pro software package analyzes the electromagnetic interference between electric power lines and adjacent installations such as pipelines, railways and communication lines. It is especially designed to simplify and to automate the modeling of complex right-of-way configurations and it will compute the system’s response due to both induction effects and earth conduction effects.

The CorrCAD software package tackles a large variety of cathodic protection design tasks and related issues, onshore and offshore, and predict the degree of corrosion control provided by a system. CorrCAD evaluates the corrosion status of the protected structure and help optimize the location and characteristics of the corrosion protective system (such as Impressed Cathodic Current Protection systems) to minimize stray current interference effects on protected structures such as pipelines.

MultiGroundZ Lite

MultiGroundZ Lite is a version of the MultiGroundZ package with less features and capabilities and may be suitable for those with more narrow needs or restricted budgets.

It focuses on networks with horizontal multilayer soils only (i.e., finite soil volumes, cylindrical, hemispherical, hemispheroidal, inclined, vertical, and multi-region soil models are not included).

Software packages that come with MultiGroundZ+ or MultiGroundZ, such as AutoGroundDesign, AutoGrid Pro, Right-of-Way Pro, SESTLC Pro, SESEnviroPlus, SESShield-3D, and CorrCAD, are not included in the Lite version.