Electrical Model of Building Structures Under Ground-Fault Conditions, Part I

Building structures are systems of connected parts designed to support continuous persons' occupancy. Safety of persons against electrical indirect contact under ground-fault conditions depends on the potential gradient established by the fault current within the structure. In buildings, persons are in contact with floors, but also with walls and/or conductive objects, thus ground-fault potentials not only depend on the configuration and location of the grounding system with respect to the point of touch, but also on the construction type of the structure, as well as on the floor material. In this paper, through both analytical models and field measurements involving different types of buildings (i.e. masonry, reinforced concrete), the authors have investigated the main factors that affect the distribution of ground potentials in structures.