HEAT LOSS IN INSULATED PIPE THE INFLUENCE OF THERMAL CONTACT RESISTANCE: A CASE STUDY

The thermal contact resistance is an important parameter in many heat loss problems. Determining the contact resistance for practical systems is quite complex due to the dependency of the relative geometry of the contacting surfaces. It is, therefore, difficult to make general contact resistance data available in the literature. In this paper, we first describe a simple model to predict the effect of contact resistance. This is followed by describing a simple device which can be used to measure thermal contact resistance for an insulated pipe system. The apparatus consists of a steel containment pipe exposed to saturated steam. The heat flux is determined by measuring steam condensate over a fixedperiod of time, while temperature measurements are obtained using standard type K thermocouples. The apparatus is calibrated using insulating materials with known thermal conductivities as they are necessary for the calibration and validation of the experimental setup. Once the device has been calibrated, the thermal contact resistance is determined for the insulating materials (standard fiberglass and calcium-silicate) using the electrical analog resistance method. It is shown also that the energy loss in a system may be affected by manipulating the contact resistance between the pipe and insulation. The effect of a small air gap to influence contact resistance is investigated. By placing spacers between the pipe and insulation, effectively producing a small air gap, we were able to significantly alter the contact resistance. A generalized optimization approach is also presented. The defined parameters are considered as a function of insulation cost and the cost due to the energy loss of the system. GOAL OF THIS WORK The goal of this work is to develop a simple model which will accurately predict the heat transfer from an insulated pipe. A primary objective is to handle contact resistance in a relatively simple manner and verify the results experimentally. The model will be situation and geometry dependent.

EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS The test rig developed for this work is shown in Figure 5. It is used not only to measure the contact resistance, but also to measure the thermal conductivity of the pipe and insulating materials. Materials from the field are used in the rig since the pipe/insulation pair determines the contact resistance. Installation methods are also the same as those used in the field since contact resistance is sensitive to surface contact pressures. In this test rig, saturated steam condenses on the inner surface of the containment pipe. The heat transfer rate is constant and is determined by measuring steam condensate as energy is transferred from the steam through the pipe/insulation configuration. A calibrated sight glass is used to measure the condensate level. Temperatures are obtained using thermocouples. Since saturated steam is condensing at the inner surface of the containment pipe, the convective coefficient between the steam and pipe is assumed large, and the inner pipe temperature is taken as the saturation temperature of the steam. In consideration of the thin wall approximation for pipes with high thermal conductivity, this temperature can also be approximated as the outer wall temperature of the containment pipe.

Thermal conductivity experiment The thermal conductivity of the containment pipe and insulating material must be determined before the contact resistance can be obtained. While such data are available for many commonly used materials, we chose to measure the conductivity for the materials of our tests for two reasons. First, such measurements validate the experimental methodology in as much as the conductivities for the materials of our tests were given by the manufacturer. By comparing with the published values, the test rig and the methodology are examined. Second, in the future, we anticipate using materials for which there is little or no thermal property information. The thermal conductivity of the pipe and insulating materials is readily determined using the experimental test rig. Referring to Figure 5, thermocouples are accurately placed at a fixed distance within the insulating material. Knowing the energy transfer and geometry, results in a straightforward calculation for thermal conductivity using the following relationship: Q = AT/Rx (5) Where, Rx is the conductive resistance of the insulation over the distance shown in Figure 5 and AT is the associated temperature difference. The heat transfer, Q, is measured, AT is measured; therefore, the only unknown in equation (5) is the thermal conductivity.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The development of the model and experimental techniques is based on the fact that the total energy dissipated can be determined through the measurement of condensation of water. If the energy dissipation through the pipe section can be determined, the contact resistance can be calculated. The total energy dissipation consists of that through the test pipe section and the steam feedline to the pipe. The loss associated with the feedline must either be minimized or accounted for. In our approach, we chose to calibrate by accounting for the heat loss.

THERMAL CONTACT RESISTANCE DETERMINATION Based on the experimental data, the value of the quality, x, calculated value of hcon and the thermal contact resistance, Rcon, for each experiment performed are shown in Tables 2 and 3.

CONCLUSIONS This preliminary study has shown the following: - A simplified engineering model for thermal contact resistance has been proposed. - A simple test rig has been designed and constructed to aid in model development and validation. - Validity studies indicate that the developed model and test rig can provide good results. When comparing with an insulated foam with known thermal conductivity, the difference is 8.7%. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the potential of the presented methodology to provide an optimal configuration for a given piping system. The contact resistance can be modified to either increase or decrease contact resistance. These results suggest that standard optimization techniques might be used in these types of design problems. It is also shown that the air-gap method has a high potential to affect energy loss. In addition, while the focus of this study is on the contact resistance and energy loss, the proposed model and device can also be used to obtain the thermal conductivity of any insulating material.

ASSIGNMENT ON

HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER

SUBMITTED BY, B.SRI HARSHA 07BME062