Soil resistance

Both fiber producers and fabric mills have realized that many of the performance variants that are difficult to iacorporate iato fiber melt spinning can be accompHshed by post-treating yams or fabrics. Mills ia the 1990s can apply flame retardants, softeners, dye-fade inhibitors, and stain- and soil-resisting agents as part of the finishing of a fabric. 

The resistance to ground for a 600 mm x 600 mm plate grounding, considering a sandy soil, treated artificially and having attained an average soil resistivity of 10 k2m... 

Consider a large sub-station grounding system, having a layer of crushed rook, 150 mm thick at the surface, having a resistivity of 3000 fim and the soil resistivity of 150 Tim ... 

This will depend upon the condition of the soil and its moisture content. This is why it is usually high where the moisture content is less than 15% of the weight of soil. The variation in soil resistivity is, however, low when the moisture content exceeds 22%. 

Fig. 3-4 Current-potential measurements on a buried steel storage tank with bitumen coating (surface area 4 m with four defects 5 cm x 20 cm soil resistivity p 30Q. m).

Fig. 3-14 Circuit of a measuring instrument for determining the apparent soil resistance by the Wenner method.

There is a direct and an indirect method of measuring specific soil resistivity. The direct method is carried out in the laboratoiy on a soil sample using a soil box as shown in Fig. 3-16. The resistivity of a soil specimen of cross-section, S, and length, I, is measured and the specific resistivity determined ... 

When making measurements in the soil box, it has to be remembered that soil samples can change from their original condition and this will have an effect on the resistivity. Soil resistivity measurements in the soil box only give accurate results with cohesive soils. However, the order of magnitude of the specific resis-... 

The most commonly applied indirect method of measuring soil resistivity using the four-electrode arrangement of Fig. 3-14 is described further in Section 24.3.1. The measured quantities are the injected current, /, between the electrodes A and B, and the voltage, t/, between the electrodes C and D. The specific soil resistivity follows from Eq. (24-41). For the usual measuring arrangement with equally spaced electrodes a = b,ii follows from Eq. (24-41) ... 

If the specific soil resistivity varies vertically with depth, t, an apparent specific resistivity can be obtained from a combination of the resistivity of the upper and... 

The Wenner method is chiefly used to determine the grounding resistance along the pipeline track and the installation positions for cathodic structures. Local limited soil resistivity is most clearly determined from the grounding resistance of an inserted Shephard rod (see Fig. 3-18). Soil stratification can be recognized from the apparent specific soil resistivity, p, by the Wenner method, if a is varied. 

Since the Wenner formula [Eq. (24-41)] was deduced for hemispherical electrodes, measuring errors appear for spike electrodes. To avoid errors in excess of 5%, the depth of penetration must be less than a 5. Soil resistivity increases greatly under frost conditions. While electrodes can be driven through thin layers of frost, soil resistivity measurements deeper than 20 cm in frozen ground are virtually impossible. 

With four-electrode measurements effected from the surface, an average soil resistivity over a larger area is obtained. The resistivity of a relatively localized layer of earth or pocket of clay can only be accurately measured by using a spike electrode. Figure 3-18 gives dimensions and shape factors, Fg, for various electrodes. 

Fig. 3-16 Soil box for determining the specific soil resistivity (dimensions in millimeters).

Since the Wenner rod is mechanically somewhat delicate, it is only used in loose soils or in bore holes. For all measuring rods, the specific soil resistivity is equal to the product of the measured ac resistance and the shape factor Fq, which is determined empirically. 

Soil resistivity measurements can be affected by uncoated metal objects in the soil. Values that are too low are occasionally obtained in built-up urban areas and in streets. Measurements parallel to a well-coated pipeline or to plastic-coated cables give no noticeable differences. With measurements in towns it is recommended, if... 

Fig. 3-17 Apparent specific electrical soil resistivity p in the case of two different layers of soil with the resistivities Pi down to a depth of t and p to a depth below t (explanation in the text).

The data in Table 4-1 show the considerable influence of the electrical resistivity of soil. This is particularly so in categories 2, 7, and 10. From a profile of the soil resistance along the course of a pipeline with welded connections or with electrically conducting thrust couplings, one can readily recognize anodic areas, and... 

Differences in rest potential can be about 0.5 V for cell formation with foreign cathodic structures. The danger increases on coated construction components with coating defects of decreasing size on account of the surface rule [Eq. (2-44)], and is limited, for a given soil resistivity p-Mv., not by the grounding resistance of the defect / , but rather by the pore resistance R2 and the polarization resistance of Rp. 

Without coke backfill, the anode reactions proceed according to Eqs. (7-1) and (7-2) with the subsequent reactions (7-3) and (7-4) exclusively at the cable anode. As a result, the graphite is consumed in the course of time and the cable anode resistance becomes high at these points. The process is dependent on the local current density and therefore on the soil resistivity. The life of the cable anode is determined, not by its mechanical stability, but by its electrical effectiveness. 

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 ...

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 /p (i e., the higher the specific soil resistivity), the further apart the anodes can be placed. 

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