Continuous Horizontal Anode Beds

Where there is available ground and the specific resistivity of soil in the upper layers is low, the anodes are laid horizontally [3]. A trench 0.3 to 0.5 m wide and 1.5 to 1.8 m deep is dug with, for example, an excavator or trench digger (see Fig. 9-2). A layer of coke 0.2-m thick is laid on the bottom of the trench. The impressed current anodes are placed on this and covered with a 0.2-m layer of coke. Finally the trench is filled with the excavated soil. No. IV coke with a particle size of 5 to 15 mm and specific gravity of 0.61 m is backfilled at a rate of 50 kg per meter of trench. The anodes are connected in parallel and every three to four anode cables are connected to the anode header cable by a mechanical cable crimp encapsulated in an epoxy splice kit to give an economical service life at high current output. 

The header cable between anode bed and rectifier must be particularly well insulated. For this reason cables with double plastic sheathing of type NYY-0 are used. The cable sheath must not be damaged during installation because the copper core at the defects will be anodically attacked in a very short time and the connection to the rectifier broken. Damage to the cable sheath is not so serious if a multicored cable is used. Usually not all the core insulation is damaged so that the operation of the anode bed is not interrupted. In addition, measurement of resistance and detection of defects is easier. 

The constant, C, depends on the dimensions of the anode bed. It follows from line 4 of Table 24-1 for a horizontal ground in the half space 

For installations with continuous coke backfill, the anodes can be installed at double the spacing of the anode bed extension. The lower the ratio p /pe (i-e., the higher the specific soil resistivity), the further apart the anodes can be placed. 

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Fig. 9-3 Grounding resistance of anodes in a continuous coke bed with a covering of earth t = 1 m and a diameter d = 0.3 m for a specific soil resistivity of p = 10 Q m. Horizontal anodes from Eq. (24-23), see line 9 in Table 24-1 vertical anodes R ...

The wattage is directly proportional to the grounding resistance of the whole anode bed and therefore to the specific soil resistivity. Equation (9-5) gives the grounding resistance of the anode installation which either consists of n horizontal or vertical single anodes or of anodes with a horizontal continuous coke bed of total length I = ns. The total cost function is given by [1] ... 

Anodes are installed in a continuous or non-continuous coke breeze bed in a horizontal ditch. 

The installation costs for a single impressed current anode of high-silicon iron can be taken as Kj = DM 975 (S550). This involves about 5 m of cable trench between anodes so that the costs for horizontal or vertical anodes or for anodes in a common continuous coke bed are almost the same. To calculate the total costs, the annuity factor for a trouble-free service life of 20 years (a = 0.11, given in Fig. 22-2) should be used. For the cost of current, an industrial power tariff of 0.188 DM/kWh should be assumed for t = 8750 hours of use per year, and for the rectifier an efficiency of w = 0.5. The annual basic charge of about DM 152 for 0.5 kW gives about 0.0174 DM/kWh for the calculated hours of use, so that the total current cost comes to... 

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