IBP1074_15

IMPROVING METHODS FOR CALCULATING THE

INDUCTIVE INTERFERENCE BETWEEN POWER
LINES AND NEARBY BURIED PIPELINE
Andr G. L. Furlan1, Amauri G. Martins Jr. 2, Patrick Kuo-Peng 3
Mauricio V. F. da Luz4

Copyright 2015, Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP

This Technical Paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Pipeline Conference & Exposition 2015, held between September, 22-
24, 2015, in Rio de Janeiro. This Technical Paper was selected for presentation by the Technical Committee of the event. The
material as it is presented, does not necessarily represent Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute opinion or that of its
Members or Representatives. Authors consent to the publication of this Technical Paper in the Rio Pipeline Conference &
Exposition 2015.

Abstract
Significant voltage and current levels can be induced in nearby metallic pipelines due to power lines in areas where they
share the same corridor. This electromagnetic interference (EMI) has been an important research subject over the last
decades. In this work, a hybrid method employing nite element calculations and standard circuit analysis is performed
to calculate the inductive interference of power lines on buried pipelines. A comparison is made between the studied
method and the SESTLC software package to validate the simulations. After this validation an equivalent soil structure
is proposed to introduce multilayer soil structures in software packages which use classical equations.

1. Introduction
The interference of power lines (PL) on buried pipelines (BP) has been a topic of major concern since the early
1960s, mainly due to rapid increase in energy consumption (significant increase in the load and short-circuit current
levels) along with recent environmental concerns that have forced various utilities to share common corridors in an
effort to minimize the impact on wildlife and other related threats to nature [1]. Significant voltage and current levels,
which may be dangerous both to operating personnel and pipeline structural integrity, can be induced in nearby
pipelines due to power lines in areas where they share the same corridor.
In order to provide protection for operating personal, the induced AC voltage level in metallic pipelines is limited by
regulations existing in several countries. Therefore, especially in new projects, a detailed EMI study focused on induced
AC voltage level is required. Over the past years, this problem was examined by researchers that produced various
reports, papers and standards, which were relying mainly on the Carson formulae [5]. More recently, hybrid methods
employing nite element method (FEM) and circuit analysis to calculate the inductive interference of PL on BP have
been proposed and validated in [1-3]. With FEM, it is possible to solve more complex situations (a multi-layered soil
structure, for example). In this work, a variation of the method initially proposed in [3] is analyzed to improve the
determination of mutual impedance of conductors (BP, PL). A comparison is made between the studied method and the
SESTLC software package to validate the simulations. Finally, the section 4 investigates the effect of soil layers
structure and proposes an equivalent soil for homogenous simulations.

2. EMI Problem and Description of Methods

In order to validate the implanted method, the system shown in Fig. 1a was chosen. The PL consists of one
phase at 16 meters above a ground with a multi-layer soil structure. The influence of other conductors can be calculated
using the superposition theorem. A crossing situation is shown in Fig. 1b. It comprises 1 km of a shared corridor
between a pipeline and a transmission line. The validation is made in section 3 for non-parallel exposures ( = 15, 30,
45, 60 and 75) and for parallel exposures ( = 0), the canonical crossings. The soil structure influence is discussed
in the section 4. The Appendix contains a detailed description of the electrical and geometrical parameters of the studied
problem.

______________________________
1
Electrical Engineer PETROBRAS TRANSPORTE S/A
2
Electrical Engineer ENGECORR ENGENHARIA DE CORROSO LTDA
3,4
Dr., Electrical Engineer UFSC
 Rio Pipeline Conference & Exposition 2015
The method proposed in [1] combines FEM calculations and standard circuit analysis with the purpose of calculating
the inductive coupling between a transmission line and a nearby pipeline.
In this work, the required input data for the method are:
Power line and pipeline geometrical conguration;
Physical characteristics of conductors and pipeline;
Air and soil characteristics;
Power current.
The output data are:
The induced voltage and current at any point on the pipeline;
The currents owing to earth through the leakage resistances;
The distribution of the current returning through the ground wire(s).

Figure 1a - Cross-section of the system under Figure 1b - Oblique exposure crossing power line
investigation

2.1. Finite Element Formulation of the Electromagnetic Problem

Considering the cross-section of the system under investigation (Fig. 1a), the following system of equations
describes the linear 2D electromagnetic diffusion problem for the z-direction components of the magnetic vector

potential (MVP) and Jz of the total current density vector [1]:

1 2 2
[ + ] +
=0
0 2 2
+
= (1)

{ =

where is the conductivity, and are the vacuum and relative permeabilities, respectively, is the angular
frequency, is the source current density in the z direction, and is the rms value of the current owing through
conductor of cross section.

2.2. Self and Mutual Inductance Calculation

In [3], the system of equations given in (1) is solved using dedicated finite element calculation software, in
order to compute the MVP on the surface of each metallic structure (phase wires, sky wires and buried pipeline). Using
the values of the MVP, the self and mutual inductances per length of structure can be calculated using the following
relations:

=
(2)

=
(3)

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In order to evaluate the mutual inductance per length of pipeline (2), a base current is imposed to one of
the phase wires (with the pipeline current set equal zero). For the evaluation of the self-inductance the same approach is
used, but now a certain base current is imposed to the pipeline.
In this work, the freeware FEMM (Finite Element Method Magnetics) is used to solve the system of equations
(1). However, in the evaluation of self-inductances, after some simulations it was observed that the expression (3) may
be inaccurate. Therefore, to more accurately determine the self and mutual inductances, it is proposed to develop the
expression of mutual complex impedance [4] between a conductor i and another conductor k through which flows a

current , with all other conductor forced to zero:

=

(4)

The self-inductance can be calculated using (4), by setting i=k.

Applying (1) to the above formulation we find:

=

, (5)

1
=
+
, = (6)

Where:
, is the MVP simulated in each finite element of the conductor i;

, is the cross sectional area of the pipeline;

, is the pipelines conductivity;
, is the power line simulation current.

2.2. Equivalent electrical circuit evaluation

From the computed impedances, the pipeline equivalent electrical circuit shown in Fig. 2 can be built. This
circuit is solved using standard circuits methods.

Figure 2 Circuit representation of the problem

Where:
, is the power line current;
, is the mutual impedance between the power line and a pipeline section;
, is the self-impedance of each pipeline section;
, is the coating impedance of each pipeline section;
and , is the terminal groundings of the pipeline.

The formulas used to calculate and can be found in [7].

3. Validation
The method was implemented using Matlab. The coupling between the software FEMM and Matlab is made
by a Matlab toolbox called OctaveFEMM, which works both for Octave and Matlab. The circuit model is solved using
classical circuit theory, also implemented in Matlab, allowing for the calculation of the induced voltages and currents on
a buried pipeline. Assuming a zero Dirichlet boundary far away from the system that encloses all the currents flowing in
the system, a square with 20 km side is set as the total solution domain for the problem. The smart meshing method is
adopted, the generated meshes contain between 17000 and 19000 triangular elements.

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20 km

Air

Phase Wire
20 km

Buried Pipeline

10 km

Soil

Figure 3 FEM solution domain of the examined problem (MVP = 0 for red edges)

The validation was performed by comparing the results of the implemented approach and the ones of the
SESTLC software package for the Fig. 1b case, with = 0, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75. This software package is based
in Carsons relations [5] and, therefore, limited to simulations of structures buried in homogenous soil only. A more
realistic case, with a non-homogenous soil, will be presented in the next section.
The following figures show that the described method is validated and the results are very close to those of SESTLC
model.

Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=0) Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=15)

200 150
SESTLC SESTLC
Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

FEM FEM
150
100

100

50
50

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pipeline Length (m) Pipeline Length (m)
Figure 4a Validation = 0 Figure 4b Validation = 15
Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=30) Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=45)
140 120
SESTLC SESTLC
Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

120 FEM FEM

100
100
80
80
60
60
40
40

20 20

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 0 500 1000 1500
Pipeline Length (m) Pipeline Length (m)
Figure 4c Validation = 30 Figure 4d Validation = 45

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Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=60) Induced Voltage on Pipeline (alpha=75)
100 60
SESTLC SESTLC
Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

Induced Voltage on Pipeline (V)

FEM FEM
50
80

40
60
30
40
20

20
10

0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Pipeline Length (m) Pipeline Length (m)
Figure 4e - Validation = 60 Figure 4f - Validation = 75

4. Two Layer Soil Structure Influence

In [2] the effect of multilayer soil on the inductive interference is studied. However, classical methods based in
Carsons relations [5] assume that the pipeline is buried in homogenous soil. Nevertheless, in practice, the ground is
composed of several layers with different resistivities. In this work this influence is showed in a real case. Table 1
indicates the case of earth stratification with one and two horizontal layers.

Table 1 Soil Equivalent

Model Layers Resistivity

(m)
Two Layers 1 179,56
h=2,65 m 2 22065,79

Homogenous 1 2521,16
h=

The next figure shows the simulations with = 0 for the homogeneous case and two layer soil structure. The
induced voltage at one extremity is approximately 18% greater than in the homogenous model and indicates the
importance of modelling the soil structure properly.

Figure 5 Comparison between Homogenous and Two Layer Soil

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In two horizontal layer models, when the first layer is thick enough, the inductive interference is mostly
determined by this layer. However if there is a great difference between resistivities and the first layer has a small
thickness a considerable error may be observed [2], as in the previous case. Note that finites elements simulations are
more accurate in this case, when compared to classical models.
Nevertheless, in order to introduce the effect of two layer soils in classic models, the homogenous earth approximation
of two-layer earth structures investigated in [6] was implemented. From this approach, the equivalent resistivity is given
by:

1 1 1 1
( + )+( ) 21
1 2 1 2
= 1 [ 1 1 1 1
] (7)
( + )( ) 21
1 2 1 2

where , , are the first layer resistivity, permeability and thickness, respectively; is the second layer resistivity
and f is the power system frequency. For the Table 1 case one have: = 20610 m. With this result its possible to
simulate a two layer soil structure with classic methods as used in SESTLC. The following figure shows the result of
this approach to the studied case.

Figure 6 - Two Layers and Equivalent Soil

With this methodology the highest difference between the two soil structures is less than 1%, which validates
the use of the approach on software packages based on classic equations. However, this method is more accurate in
cases where the thickness is small or very large (below 50 meters and greater than 2000 meters, in this case) as shown
in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - Induced voltage at one extreme of pipeline the versus the thickness of the first earth layer

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The above figure shows the value of the induced voltage on one of the pipelines extreme points versus the
thickness of the first layer for a homogenous earth approximation and two-layer earth structures. In this case the highest
difference is 10% and occurs when h=500 m. Note that the induced voltage in homogenous earth approximation is
generally higher than in the other case. Therefore, due to this approximation to be conservative and presents good
accuracy, it is applicable in most cases.

5. Conclusion
In this paper a hybrid method to calculate the inductive interference of power lines on buried pipelines was
developed. In the second section the system of equations and the equivalent circuit model that describes the problem
were presented. For greater accuracy to determine complexes impedances, it was developed and implemented an
expression of mutual complex impedance. In the section three the implemented method was validated by comparison
with the SESTLC software package. Due the importance of measuring the soil resistivity accurately for the interference
problem modeling, in the fourth section the influence of different soil structures was studied. It was shown that a simple
homogenous soil structure can yield different results compared to those obtained by more complex structures (two layer
soils for example). Consequently, for a better modelling of the soil influence, more complex algorithm is required.
However, the homogenous earth approximation of two-layer earth structures investigated in [6] was implemented,
allowing the simulation of more complex soil structures in simple software based on Carsons relations.

6. Appendix

Table 2 The main parameters of the studied case

Source
Current 1k A
Pipeline
Inner Radius 0,1014 m
Outer Radius 0,1095 m
Meal Conductivity 5,8 MS
dP 0,8 m
dl 0m
ZAT 100 M

Coating
Thickness 0,003 m
Resistance 300 km2

7. References
[1] G. C. Christoforidis, D. P. Labridis and P. S. Dokopoulos, A Hybrid Method for Calculating the Inductive
Interference Caused by Faulted Power Lines to Nearby Buried Pipelines, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,
Vol. 20, No. 2, 2005, pp 1465-1473.
[2] G. C. Christoforidis, D. P. Labridis, P. S. Dokopoulos, Inductive Interference on Pipelines Buried in Multilayer
Soil, due to Magnetic Field from Nearby Faulted Power Lines, IEEE Transactions On Electromagnetic
Compatibility (EMC), Vol.47, No.2, May 2005, pp. 254-262.
[3] G. C. Christoforidis, P. S. Dokopoulos, and K. E. Psannis, Induced voltages and currents on gas pipelines with
imperfect coatings due to faults in a nearby transmission line, in Proc. 2001 IEEE Porto PowerTech Conf., pp.
401406.
[4] G. K. Papagiannis, D. G. Triantafyllidis, and D. P. Labridis, A one-step finite element formulation for the modeling
of single and double circuit transmission lines, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 3338, 2000.
[5] J. R. Carson, Wave propagation in overhead wires with ground return, Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 5, pp. 539554,
1926.
[6] D. A. Tsiamitros, G. K. Papagiannis, et al., Homogenous Earth Approximation of Two-Layer Earth Structures: An
Equivalent Resistivity Approach, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 22, no. 1,pp. 658-666, Jan. 2007.
[7] CIGRE Working Group 36.02. Guide on the influence of high voltage AC power systems on metallic pipelines -
Electromagnetic Compatibility with telecommunication circuits, low voltage networks and metallic structures.
CIGRE, 1995.