1
Accurate Modeling of Underground Cable Earth
Impedances for Electromagnetic Transients
F. A. Uribe, Member, IEEE
AbstractAn accurate methodology for calculating transients
on underground cable systems is presented in this paper. Ground
impedance loops ZE() of the system are calculated solving
Pollaczeks integral. Pollaczeks solutions are extended to the
Laplace complex frequency domain ZE(s) through VECTFIT.
Comparisons between approximate ground models are shown
through relative error criterion on transient step responses
validated with a classical case reported in the literature.
Index TermsPollaczeks integral, underground cable earth-
return impedances, transient response, vector fitting.
NOMENCLATURE
angular frequency =2f,
0 magnetic permeability of vacuum and air,
soil conductivity,
K0 ( ) modified Bessel function of second class
and zero order,
d distance between cables, or the radius for
the self impedance case,
D distance between one cable and the image
of the other, or twice the cable depth for the
self impedance case,
p complex depth of the Skin Effect layer
p = 1 j 0 ,
h depth of a cable, or the average depth
h = (h1 + h2 ) 2 for the mutual impedance
case,
x horizontal distance between cables, or the
cable radius for the self impedance case,
twice the average cable depth 2h
normalized by the Skin Effect layer
thickness | p|,
horizontal distance x normalized by the
double of the average cable depth 2h,
I. INTRODUCTION
I T is well known that electrical parameters of underground
transmission cables are highly frequency dependent [1-4].
This is due in part to skin effect in conductors and relaxation
phenomena in dielectrics. One of the principal priorities on
underground cable transient simulation using EMTP-type
This work was supported by PROMEP under Grant 103.5/05/2478-
UANL-PTC-48.
F. A. Uribe is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Autonomous
University, Nuevo Len, NL C.P 66450 Mxico (e-mail: fauribe@ieee.org).
1-4244-0493-2/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE.
programs is to account for the frequency dependence of the
line and the natural distribution of the losses due to the
presence of the ground [1, 2].
In 1926 Pollaczek tackled the problem of calculating the
electromagnetic field distribution inside an imperfectly semi-
infinite conducting ground. The problem here is that his
solution was stated in the form of an infinite integral with a
highly irregular oscillatory behavior that does not posses an
analytic closed-form solution [3]. After Pollaczeks statement
several analytical and numerical approaches have emerged to
attempt the solution of this integral on a specific application
case within physical variable limits or numerical restrictions
[4-10].
In [11] the author of this paper presented an efficient and
accurate broad range algorithmic evaluation of Pollaczeks
integral for calculating underground cable earth-impedances
ZE(). Based on a dimensionless normalization of the
integrand it is possible to consider in the analysis any case of
cable system configuration and physical parameter value of
the media. In this normalization the depth and the horizontal
distance between cables are referred to the skin effect layer
thickness in the ground [11].
In this paper a very accurate and efficient application of the
Pollaczeks algorithmic solution in [11] is extended to the case
of analyzing electromagnetic transients in the Laplace
complex frequency domain using Vector Fitting (VECTFIT)
[12]. The synthesis of underground cable earth-impedances in
the Laplace domain ZE(s) is achieved via rational function
approximations with an optimal scaling procedure with an
error control criterion consisting in the reutilization of a set of
starting real poles that results ideal for smooth functions as
ZE() [12, 13].
The impact of ground conduction effects due to different
approximated models for calculating ZE(s) is analyzed here
through the relative error criterion on transient step responses
at the midway and at the remote end of an underground cable
system reported previously in the specialized literature.
II. MODELING UNDERGROUND CABLE SYSTEMS
As underground cables are highly frequency dependent thus
frequency domain techniques are ideal as a backup for time
domain simulations such as EMTP-type programs [1-4, 14-
20]. Consider the underground cable system depicted in Fig.
1. The cable layout and design specifications for this case
have been taken from the classical paper reported by
Wedepohl and Wilcox in [4, 20].
 2

The electromagnetic behavior of underground cable III. ACCURATE ZE() CALCULATION

systems is described by the Telegrapher's Equations [2]: The matrix parameter function ZY represents the
d longitudinal and transversal effects of the cable system [2].
V =ZI (1a )
dz Assuming a Quasi-TEMZ mode of propagation the self and
mutual ZE() of an underground cable are given by [2-5, 7-
d
I =YV (1b) 11]:
dz
j0
Z E ( ) = [K0 (d p) K0 (D p) + J ] (4a)
where Z is the series impedance, Y is the shunt admittance, 2
both parameter matrices are in per unit length, V and I are and
vectors of phase voltages and currents, respectively [2, 4, 13]. 2 2
The solution of (1a) and (1b) is [2, 4, 13]: + exp 2 h + 1/p
exp ( j x ) d (4b)
J=
+ 2 + 1/p 2
V( z ) = exp ( z ) C 1 + exp ( z ) C 2 (2 a )
where J is the Pollaczek integral. Consider the variable change
I( z ) = YC exp ( z ) C 1 YC exp ( z ) C 2 (2b ) =u/|p| in (4b) and introducing the following dimensionless
and parameters in (4a) and (4b) [11]:
() = Z Y (2c ) 2h x
= and = (5a , b )
Y C ( ) = Z 1
(2 d ) p 2h
thus obtaining
C1 and C2 are the integration constants vectors determined by
+
the boundary conditions, is the propagation function and
YC is the characteristic admittance.
J = 2 j [F ( u ) u + j G( u )] exp [ F ( u )] ...
0

A homogeneous cable section of length l can be exp [ j G( u )] cos ( u ) du (6 )

represented by a two port network. This nodal representation where
relates the voltage and current responses from the sending end
F ( u) = u 2 + u4 + 1 2 (7 a )
z=0 to the receiving end z=l as follows [4, 13]:
and

I 0 A B V0 G ( u) = u2 + u4 + 1 2 (7b )
= (3a ) A detailed analysis of the integrand in (6) is given in [11].
I l B A Vl
This yields an accurate broad range algorithm for the
and
numerical integration based on a truncation criterion and a
A = YC coth ( l ) and B = - YC csch ( l ) (3b , c ) zeros crossings detection procedure.
On introducing the normalized earth impedance concept:
where V0(s)and I0(s) are the voltage and current vectors at Z E ( ) Z E ( ) (2 0 ) (8 )
z=0. Vl(s) and Il(s) are vectors of voltages and currents at z=l. =
the normalized self-earth impedance is:

[ (
Z E , self = j K 0 )
j K0 ( )
j + J ( , ) ] (9a )
J(,) is the normalized Pollaczek integral correction term
[11]. The normalized mutual-earth impedance is given by
[14]:

Z E , mutual = j K 0 j 2 + 2 K
a)

K 0 j 1 + 2 + J ( , ) (9b )

where
= (h1 h2 ) (h1 + h2 ) (10 )
The application range of parameter is (0, 1]. For the case of
analyzing a switching transient on a observation time of 3ms
(9a) and (9b) have been evaluated for each ZE() loop in the
b)
system in Fig. 1 with 1024 samples. Details of the consumed
Fig. 1. Underground cable transmission system taken from [4]. a) Cable
CPU-time in seconds and of the number of Pollaczeks
layout. b) Transversal section data for each concentric cable. integral evaluations are summarized in Table I.
 3

IV. SYNTHESIS OF ZE(S) USING VECTOR FITTING

The variable change for applied in (4b) is related with the
skin effect as follows:
1
p = (1 j ) (11)
2 o
and
= u 2 o (12a )
Introducing the Laplace complex frequency variable
s=c+j in (12a) yields:
= u j 2 (c s ) o (12b )
where c is a real damping constant [13]. In the case of
replacing the Laplace complex frequency s in the
normalized parameter (5a) we obtain:

= 2h j 2 (c s ) o (13) Fig. 2. Comparison between ZE() and the synthesized ZE(s) with 1024
samples for the system shown in Fig. 1 using VECTFIT [14].
On replacing (13) in (9a) or (9b) for the evaluation of self
or mutual ZE(s) for transients calculation transform completely V. FREQUENCY DOMAIN ANALYSIS
the problem of solving (4b) for a specific angular frequency
into a more irregular oscillatory integrand as a function In the nodal array (3a) the two port network parameter
of the complex frequency s. Thus, adaptations to the matrices A and B are functions of . In transients
numerical algorithm in [11] have to be performed. calculations using the Laplace transform technique j is
Another alternative is to fit a rational approximate function replaced with s. In the nodal representation depicted in
of ZE(s) using VECTFIT [12]. As ZE() are smooth functions Fig. 3 the network elements connected to the transmission
of frequency a very accurate approximation can be achieved cable system are represented by generalized admittances in
by an optimal scaling process in [12] which consists in the the sending end with Ys and in the remote end with YR.
reutilization of a set of known starting real poles over the Thus the electrical network is represented by:
frequency interval with an improved set of the previously
calculated poles. Thus VECTFIT is used in this paper to I 0 A+ Ys B V0
approximate ZE(s) in the right hand side of (9a) and (9b) = B (15 )
0 A+ YR Vl
starting from solutions of the Pollaczek integral for ZE() in
the left hand side of (9a) and (9b). The problem now is to The voltage at the remote end and the injected current at
estimate the coefficients of the rational function below via the sending end are related to the boundary conditions as is
least squares over the frequency interval in the underground shown in Fig. 3 with:
cable transient application case [12]: Vl = H (s ) I 0 (16 )
N
cn where
Z E ( ) sa
n =1 n
+d (14 )
H( s ) = { B - ( A + YS ) B -1 (A+ YR ) } -1 (17 )
where cn are the residues, an the poles and d is an optional real H(s) is the transfer function of the network system. The
term. short circuit current and open circuit voltage transient
The ZE() calculated with Pollaczeks integral in this paper responses are calculated in paper section VII through the
section II are now synthesized to obtain ZE(s) using VECTFIT numerical Laplace transform technique (NLT).
[12]. For the synthesis 14 real poles with 8 iterations were
chosen in a CPU-time of 3.30400 sec and a root-mean-square
error of the fitting of 5.4558731e-6. The results of the fitting
are shown in Fig. 2 for the magnitude and phase angle. The
indisputable accuracy of VECTFIT is shown in the figure.

TABLE I
POLLACZEKS INTEGRAL COMPUTATIONAL SPEED FOR ZE() LOOPS FORMED
IN THE UNDERGROUND CABLE SYSTEM SHOWN IN FIG. 1

Fig. 3. Two port network nodal representation of an underground cable

transmission system connected with YS and YR in their ends.
 4

VI. THE NUMERICAL LAPLACE TRANSFORM (NLT) calculating transients accurately.

The voltage wave form response at the remote end of the Fig. 4a shows the main cable stress reported in [20], while
cable system in Fig. 3 is calculated here through the inverse in Fig. 4b the corresponding results using Pollaczeks [11]
Laplace Integral transform [4]: through VECTFIT are depicted for the same cable lengths
c+ j
1 [12].
v l (t) = V ( s ) e
l
st
ds (17 a )
2j
cj

The discretization of (17a) leads to the numerical solution

of IR(t) or VR(t) at z=l where T=mt and =ns as follows
[4]:
ec m t 1
N 1
vl m
t N n = 0
Vl n (n ) e 2 j m n / N m = 0 , 1 ,K N 1

(17 b )
where N is the number of time samples and n is the data
window (Lanczos, Vonn Hann, Hamming, etc.). The data
window is used for attenuating Gibbs phenomena errors [18].
In this paper the following Vonn Hann window has been a)
applied:
( ) = 1 + cos (2 ) 2 (17 c )
where is the frequency truncated range. The frequency
domain discretization of Vl(s) provokes frequency leaking in
time domain. The damping Laplace factor c is thus used to
quench frequency leaking errors. However, since Gibbs error
are not completely eliminated by data windows. The errors
would be amplified by the un-damping function exp(cmt)
in (17b). Thus, the selection of a value for c is a trade off. The
following criterion has been proposed by Wedepohl in [19]:

c = log e ( ) T (17 d ) b)

where T=Nt is the maximum observation time for the
transient and is the error level, whose lower bound is
determined by N. The discretization frequency step at
(17b) is implicitly considered as follows:
t = 2 N
where N/2 is the truncation frequency for the discrete
representation of Vl(s). Consider now from (17c):
2 t = N
The left-hand side of (17d) is the sampling frequency while
the right hand side is twice the truncation frequency. In
addition (17d) is in accordance with the Nyquist sampling
criterion.
VII. TRANSIENT ANALYSIS ON UNDERGROUND CABLES
A. Validation
Consider the underground transmission system and the
cable properties depicted in Fig. 1a and b, respectively. The
voltage step transient responses at the remote end of the
system for three different cable lengths (10, 20 and 40 miles)
was reported in [20] and is used here to validate the obtained
results with the methodology proposed in this paper for
Fig. 4. Voltage step transient responses for three different cable lengths. a)
Results reported in [20]. b) Results obtained in this paper solving Pollaczeks
through VECTFIT [12].
Notice in both figures the presence of the characteristic
(17 c ) attenuation level contributed by the ground model. Due in part
to this attenuation and to the relaxation phenomena in the
cable dielectrics the velocities of the propagated voltage and
current waves are almost halved. The relation between the
(17 d ) frequency and propagation speed are related through the wave
length as:
co
= (18 a )
f *r
where r* is the complex relative permittivity that also is
frequency dependent and co is the speed of the light. Dielectric
properties of the cable insulation can be introduced in (1a) and
(1b) by using Debye or Cole-Cole models [2].
B. Transient waveform responses
The open circuit voltage and short circuit current transient
step responses are calculated here through the NLT technique
described in section VI [13], using three different ZE(s)
approximate models and the one solving Pollaczeks [11].

The approximate ZE(s) models considered here are the one
proposed in the EMTP by Ametani [2], the one proposed by
Saad et al., [21] and the one taken from the doctoral
dissertation of Wilcox [20].
The voltage step responses at the remote end of the cable
system of 10 miles length are shown in Fig. 5a, while the
voltage step responses at 5 miles of the same system are
shown in Fig. 5b. Two sets of curves can be seen from these
two figures. The first grouping the ZE(s) models of Saad et
al.,[21] and Pollaczeks [11] and the other grouping Wilcox
[20] and the one used in EMTP [2].
On the other hand, changing boundary conditions in Fig. 3
the short circuit current transient step responses obtained for
the treated ZE(s) models is shown in Fig. 5c for the same cable
system.
a)
b)
c)
Fig. 5. Transient waveform responses for the cable system length of 10 miles
in Fig. 1 calculated with four different ZE(s) models. a) Step response at the
remote end. b) Step response at the midway along the system. c) Short circuit
step response at the remote end.
5
C. Relative errors in calculated transient waveform responses
The obtained transient waveform responses in Fig. 5 are
compared here through the relative error criterion:
FZ E ( s )Aprox
% rel = 1
FZ ( s )
100
(18b)
E Pollaczek
where FZE(s)Approx is the voltage or current transient waveform
response obtained with one each approximated ZE(s) model [2,
20, 21] and FZE(s)Pollaczek is the voltage or current transient
waveform response calculated with Pollaczeks [11].
Fig. 6a and b shows the relative errors on the voltage
responses and Fig. 6c shows the relative errors on the current
response. Notice from these figures that the lower error is the
one presented by the Saad et al., model for this particular case
where the relation for the grater mutual ZE(s) loop is <0.2 in
(5b).
a)
b)
c)
Fig. 6. %rel on the calculated transient waveform responses in Fig. 5. a) %rel
on voltages at the remote end. b) %rel on voltages at the midway of the cable
system. c) %rel on short circuit currents at the remote end.

VIII. CONCLUSIONS
An accurate methodology for calculating electromagnetic
transients in the frequency domain for underground cables has
been presented here. The methodology incorporates efficiently
Pollaczeks integral calculations for ZE(s) through VECTFIT
[12]. Voltage and current transient waveform responses for
different boundary conditions of a typical underground cable
transmission system reported in [4, 20] have been reproduced
in this paper with four different ZE(s) models. The resulting
differences are compared here through the relative error
criterion. For this particular case of analysis the ZE(s) model
proposed by Saad et al., [21] presented the lowest error level.
In the case of reproducing a switching transient response in
the range 333Hz<f<170.6kHz according to the physical
variables and geometry of the system in Fig. 1 the Saad et al.,
[21] model is in excellent agreement with Pollaczeks solution
[11].
Nevertheless the obtained level errors confirm the accuracy
of all treated ZE(s) models in this paper, a general criterion for
the assessment of ZE(s) models at broad range of applications
is still missing.
IX. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank Dr. A. I. Ramirez and Dr. J.
L. Naredo for their fine comments and suggestions to this
work.
X. REFERENCES
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[2] H. W. Dommel, Electromagnetic Transients Program Reference Manual
(EMTP Theory Book), Prepared for Bonneville Power Administration,
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stromdurchflossenen Einfachleitung", Electrishe Nachrichten Technik,
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XI. BIOGRAPHY
Felipe Uribe (M96) was born in Guadalajara,
Mexico, in 1970. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. in
Electrical Engineering degrees from The University
of Guadalajara, in 1994 and 1998, respectively.
During 2001 he was a visiting researcher at the
University of British Columbia, B.C., Canada. In
November 2002, he received the Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering from the Center for Research
and Advanced Studies of Mexico (CINVESTAV), Campus Guadalajara. In
July 2003, Dr. Uribe joined the Electrical Engineering Graduate Program at
The Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where he is currently a
Researcher. His primary interest is the electromagnetic simulation of
propagating waves in Biological tissues and power system transient analysis.