Earth Ground Tester | Ground Resistance testing
This page covers Earth ground tester basics and mentions Ground resistance testing. It mentions manufacturers of earth ground resistance testers used for ground resistance tests.
In broad terms, "earth resistance" is defined as resistance of soil observed in the path of flow of electric current. In general, Earth is relatively poor conductor of the electricity in comparison to normal conductors such as copper wire. Resistance can be very low when area of the path where current is flowing is larger in size. Hence in this condition Earth is considered as good conductor.
It is important to know earth resistance as it helps in finding the location which is ideal to ground the equipments and help to protect human beings. It also helps to determine what lies at few distance below the earth's surface.
Earth Ground resistance testing using ground tester
The Earth ground resistance testing will help find the best earth location and depth to fix low resistance electrodes. The resistivity of earth is used to indicate degree of corrosion useful in underground pipelines. These pipelines are used for oil, water, gas etc. Typically, locations with low resistivity values will have higher corrosion.
In ground resistance testing, earth tester generates AC signal. This signal is fed to the SUT (System Under Test). By measuring flow of current and generated voltage will give us system resistance. The earth resistance can be measured in the range between 0.001 to 20 KOhm.
Figure depicts concepts of ground resistance testing employed in earth tester equipments. As shown in the figure, Rod-3 is moved and measurement of voltage and current is recorded at various points between Rod-1 and Rod-2. By using Ohm's Law (R = E/I), Earth resistance can be determined at various points and location having low resistance can easily be derived from the plot(earth resistance versus distance in feet of Rod-3 from Rod-1.
Following are the three test methods used to measure Earth resistance.
• Fall of potential method OR three terminal test method
• Two point test method or Dead Earth method
• Clamp on test method
Manufacturers of earth ground resistance testers
Following are the popular manufacturers or vendors of earth ground resistance testers.
• Megger
• HIOKI E.E. CORPORATION
• Fluke Corporation
• Meco Instruments Pvt. Ltd.
• Global Instruments
• Yokogawa
• Cambridge Instruments & Engineering Co.
• FLIR Commercial Systems (Extech Instruments)
• Motwane Manufacturing Company Pvt. Ltd.
Test and Measurement Equipments
Test and Measurement Equipments BER Testing equipments Agilent T & M Solutions Anritsu T & M Solutions Rohde & Schwarz T & M solutions wireless channel emulator Vector signal generator Vector signal analyzer Power Analyzer Equipments Protocol Analyzer