Proceedings of the 1.

Conference on
Applied Mathematics and Computation
Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 1318, 1999
pp. 263271
Review of Analytical Methods for Calculating
Currents and Potentials along Buried Conductors
in an Impressed Field
Damir

Sljivac

, Srete Nikolovski

, Boris Caric

, and Selva Moorthy

Abstract. This paper presents the analysis of the behaviour of a buried pipeline located
in an impressed eld due to DC traction systems, toroidal ground electrodes and cathodic
protection systems, and is directed primarily towards developing accurate expressions for
pipeline currents and potentials arising from the interference. Typical cases of stray current
conduction have been treated using a eld theory approach. Simulation models for voltage
gradients imposed upon buried pipelines are developed using the CDEGS software package.
AMS subject classication: 78A55
Key words: buried conductors, impressed eld, currents and potentials, eld theory ap-
proach, CDEGS
1. Introduction
It is common practice to use ground in order to provide the return path for direct
current between two substations. The voltage gradient, arising where direct current
is injected in the ground, ultimately results in stray currents in exposed metallic
structures, aecting the buried pipelines and cable sheaths most signicantly. Stray
current propagation along buried conductors causes dierences in the contact poten-
tial to earth, with the long term eects including corrosion of the conductor in the
region where current is discharged into the surrounding soil. It is not, however, the
intention of this paper to discuss these problems in detail. In the given analysis, an
attempt has been made to derive, as accurately as possible, the formul for currents
and potentials in pipelines in the vicinity of some common sources of stray current,
such as DC traction systems and DC ground electrodes. The general expressions for
currents in pipelines exposed to electried tracks have been published by Sunde [8],

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Osijek, Kneza Trpimira 2b, 31000 Osijek, Croatia,
email: [email protected]

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Osijek, Kneza Trpimira 2b, 31000 Osijek, Croatia,
email: [email protected]

Electrical Distribution and Transmission Pty Ltd, 24 Burleigh Court, Blackburn, Vic. 3130,
Australia, email: [email protected]

Department of Electrical Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, GPO Box 2476V,
Melbourne, Vic. 3001, Australia, email: [email protected]
264 D.

Sljivac, S. Nikolovski, B. Caric, and S. Moorthy
who treats two separate cases the case of a buried pipeline crossing an electried
track at right angles, and the case of long parallel stretches between the pipeline and
the track. Based on these equations, currents and potentials in pipelines near a DC
railway are evaluated by considering the case of two conductors in close proximity,
with one of them (track) energized to a remote point over an insulated perpendicular
wire [9]. Some previous investigations have presented the expressions for the electric
eld intensity along the pipeline in the vicinity of toroidal DC electrodes in a two-
layer soil, produced by two innite series of electrode images satisfying the boundary
conditions at both surfaces [4, 6]. In the simpler case considered here, the electrode
is located in a semi-innite conducting space with a single electrode image above the
ground surface, and the pipeline is assumed to be innitely long, which makes it per-
missible to neglect the verge eects at the extremities of an actual long pipeline. The
pipeline current and potential are obtained by assuming that a transmission line can
adequately represent the electrical properties of a buried pipeline [5]. Following this
reasoning, the expressions for stray currents in pipelines in an impressed eld due to
cathodic protection systems may be derived in a similar manner.
2. Basic equations
It is assumed that a straight insulated conductor of innite length, radius a, unit
length internal impedance Z
i
, and coating leakage conductance G
i
extends along x-
axis on the surface of homogeneous earth. The conductor is located in an impressed
electric eld given by the expression:
E
i
(x) = E

(x)
d
dx
V

(x),
where the rst term on the right hand side denotes a component due to stray current
in the earth, and the reminder is the electric eld due to variation in contact potential
along the conductor. The current and the potential along the conductor are obtained
as a solution to the general dierential equation of propagation [9]:
G
1
d
2
i(x)
dx
2
Z i(x) = E
i
(x),
in the form:
i(x) =
e
x
2K
_
x

E
i
()e

d +
e
x
2K
_

x
E
i
()e

d, (1)
v(x) =
e
x
2
_
x

E
i
()e

d
e
x
2
_

x
E
i
()e

d. (2)
The propagation constant and the characteristic resistance appearing in the previous
expressions are dened in a usual way as:
=

ZG, K =
_
Z
G
, (3)
Review of Analytical Methods for Calculating Currents and Potentials 265
with the conductor impedance and total leakage conductance given by:
Z() = Z
i
+ 2i 10
7
ln
1.85
a
e
, G() =
_
G
1
i
+
1

ln
1.12
a
e

_
1
,
where is the attenuation constant, conductivity of the earth, and a
e
=

a
2
+ 4h
2
is an equivalent radius of the conductor buried at a depth h.
3. Currents in pipelines exposed to electried tracks
The rst approximations for currents and potentials along the pipeline which par-
allels an electried track energized to a remote point over an insulated perpendicular
wire, as shown in Figure 1, are obtained by [8]:
i
2
(x) = I
1
(0)
G
2

2
1
(1 )
(
2
1

2
2
)
_

(
2
x)

(
1
x)
_
, (4)
v
2
(x) = I
1
(0)

2
1
(1 )
(
2
1

2
2
)
_

(
2
x)

(
1
x)
_
, (5)
where is taken as a ratio of the earth return mutual impedance between the trolley
and the track to the earth return self impedance of the track, and may be neglected
in the case of a DC railway, when the conductor impedance is substituted by its
resistance. Propagation constants appearing in the previous expressions are obtained
in a usual way from (3), and the track leakage conductance may be taken with sucient
accuracy as G
1
= 0.34 0.66, being the earth conductivity.
Trolley
Track
Cable
2I
1
(0)
x
I
2
(x)
Figure 1. Current in a pipeline which parallels an electried track.
The functions

and

are dened in the Appendix, and are substituted by

1
2
2
(1 ) e
1|x|
_
e
2y
Ei(
2
r) e
2y
_
Ei(
2
r) + i
_
_
,
v
2
(y) = I
1
(0)

1
2
(1 ) e
1|x|
_
e
2y
Ei(
2
r) + e
2y
_
Ei(
2
r) + i
_
_
,
where Ei is the exponential integral function given in the Appendix.
Pipeline
T
r
o
l
l
e
y
T
r
a
c
k
2I
1
(0)
x
d
r
y
I
2
(y)
Figure 2. Current in a pipeline crossing an electried track.
4. Impressed eld calculations
This section briey describes the eects of the voltage gradient in the vicinity of
toroidal DC electrodes and cathodic protection systems on nearby pipelines. Assume
a circular electrode of radius r
0
and uniform current leakage along the circumference,
located at the origin of the coordinates with the z-axis through the center of the
electrode and x- and y-axes in its plane. If the electrode is assumed to be at the surface
of the earth, the scalar potential in the earth, expressed in cylindrical coordinates is
obtained by [1, 9]:
V
i
(r, z) =
I
e
2
2

r
0
r
kK(k),
where I
e
is the electrode return current and K(k) is the complete elliptic integral of
the rst kind,
k =

4r
0
r
(r
0
+ r)
2
+ z
2
being its module.
Review of Analytical Methods for Calculating Currents and Potentials 267
The radial component of the electric eld in the earth is given by [1]:
E
r
(r, z) =
V (0, 0)
2r
_
r
0
r
k
3
1 k
2
_
k
2
_
K(k) E(k)
_
+
r
0
+ r
2r
0
E(k) K(k)
_
,
where E(k) is the complete elliptic integral of the second kind, and
V (0, 0) =
I
e
2r
0
is the potential in the center of the ring.
The impressed eld along the pipeline extending parallel with the x-axis is ob-
tained by dierentiating the potential with respect to x [5, 6]:
E
i
x
=
V
i
r
r
x
=
x
r
E
r
,
where, for buried electrode, the contribution of an electrode image above the surface
of the ground has to be included.
With the impressed eld specied, the pipeline current and potential are obtained
from (1) and (2), respectively. For a symmetrical voltage impressed along the pipeline,
these equations may be expressed in the form:
i(x) =
1
2K
_

0
E
i
x
()
_
e
|x|
e
(x+)
_
d,
v(x) =

2
_

0
V
i
()
_
e
|x|
+ e
(x+)
_
d.
In the case of the pipeline exposed to impressed voltage gradient in the vicinity of
an anode of the cathodic protection system, the same analysis applies. The potential
due to an anode extending along z-axis between l/2 and l/2 in a medium of innite
extent is determined by:
V
i
(r, z) =
I(0)
4l
ln
z +
l
2
+
_
(z +
l
2
)
2
+ r
2
z
l
2
+
_
(z
l
2
)
2
+ r
2
,
where l is the length of the electrode and I(0) is the electrode current.
5. Computation results
Typical plots of the voltage gradients and impressed elds are obtained using the
CDEGS software package [7].
The potential and the impressed eld intensity along the pipeline buried at a
depth h = 1.5 m, paralleled by an electried track which is energized by the current
268 D.

Sljivac, S. Nikolovski, B. Caric, and S. Moorthy
2I
1
(0) = 600 A, with the region of parallelism extending over 4 km, are shown in
Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively.
Figure 3. Impressed potential in earth along the pipeline prole.
Figure 4. Impressed eld in earth along the pipeline prole.
In order to obtain the potential and the electric eld intensity in the vicinity
of a DC ring of radius r
0
= 300 m, the circular electrode is represented by a twelve
Review of Analytical Methods for Calculating Currents and Potentials 269
sided polygon. The ring is buried at a depth h = 2.75 m, and has the return current
I
e
= 200 A.
Figure 5. Potential distribution around a DC ring.
Figure 6. Electric eld around a DC ring.
270 D.

Sljivac, S. Nikolovski, B. Caric, and S. Moorthy
The voltage gradient around a vertical anode 1.2 m long, buried at a depth h =
0.5 m, with the current I(0) = 2 A through the anode, is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Voltage gradient around a vertical anode.
6. Conclusion
A mathematical model was developed to evaluate currents and potentials along
ground return conductors in an impressed eld due to electried tracks and DC ground
electrodes. The results obtained are found useful in the analysis of corrosion eects
on buried steel pipelines, dependent upon the magnitude of the interference current.
Appendix
Exponential Integral Function
Exponential integral function is:
Ei() =
_

e
z
z
dz,
or
Ei() = ln

n=1
(1)
n

n
n n!
,
where | arg | < and 0.57722 is Eulers constant.
Review of Analytical Methods for Calculating Currents and Potentials 271
Functions , and
(, ) =
_

d
_

2
+
2
,
(, ) =
1
2
_
e

(, ) e

(, )
_
,
(, ) =
1
2
_
e

(, ) + e

(, )
_
.
The function is related to Bessel functions of the rst and second kind, zero order,
as follows:
(, ) = J
0
() ln

w


2
Y
0
() +

n=1
1
n!
A
n
,
where w =
_

2
+
2
, A
0
= 0, A
1
= w, and A
n
=
1
n
(w
n1
(n 1)
2
A
n2
), n 2.
Functions

and

These functions appear in the expressions (4) and (5), and may be expressed in
terms of and as:

= Z
12
1 e
|x|

2
+ (x, h),

= Z
12
e
|x|

(x, h).
References
[1] T. Bosanac, Teoretska Elektrotehnika, Tehnicka knjiga, Zagreb, 1973.
[2] F. P. Dawalibi, Electromagnetic elds generated by overhead and buried short conductors, IEEE
Transactions, PWRD1, no. 4, October 1986, pp. 105119.
[3] F. B. Hildebrand, Methods of Applied Mathematics, PrenticeHall, Englewood Clis, NJ, 1965.
[4] P. J. Lagace, J. L. Houle, H. Greiss, and D. Mukhedkar, Computer aided design of a
toroidal ground electrodes in a two layer soil, IEEE Transactions, PWRD2, no. 3, July
1987, pp. 744749.
[5] P. J. Lagace, J. L. Houle, H. Greiss, and D. Mukhedkar, Computer aided evaluation of
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no. 1, January 1989, pp. 216222.
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Manual, September 1997.
[8] E. D. Sunde, Currents and potentials along leaky ground return conductors, Electrical Engineer-
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[9] E. D. Sunde, Earth Conduction Eects in Transmission Systems, D. Van Nostrand, Toronto,
New York, London, 1949.