Quasielectrostatic Induction on Stationary Vehicles under High Voltage Power Lines

J. Leman[1]
[1]POWER Engineers, Hailey, ID, USA
Published in 2012

The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) requires that high voltage power lines in the U.S. be designed to limit electrostatic effects on nearby equipment. An example is that of a large vehicle underneath a transmission line. The tires insulate the vehicle’s body from ground. If a person standing on the ground makes contact with the vehicle surface, 60 Hz current can pass through the person. The NESC requires that this current be limited to 5 milliamperes. Common methods for analyzing this phenomenon use geometric simplifications and empirical formulas. The authors used COMSOL’s AC/DC module to perform three-dimensional finite element analysis to calculate vehicle short circuit currents to ground and validate the validate the simplified methods.