CONTINUOUS-FUNCTION GROUND CONDUCTIVITY MODEL FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ELECTRIC RAILWAY EARTH CONDUCTANCE

A method is described for the determination of ground conductivity as a continuous function of depth and frequency for applications along sp atially linear structures such as railway tracks. The technique involv es measurements of mutual resistance using a modified dipole array exc ited with AC currents up to audio frequency. After representation of t he experimental data by analytic functions, the ground conductivity-de pth variation is obtained as a degenerate hypergeometric function. The determined ground conductivity is utilized to model the self and mutu al conductance of and between the running rails in a single-track rail way. The result is verified by experimental measurement.