Selection Of Insulating Material For A Pipe Carrying Hot Fluid

Project Abstract / Summary : Abstract


Whenever a hot fluid, like steam flows through a pipe from the place of generation to the point of use , there will be considerable heat loss from the hot fluid to the surroundings. In order to minimize the heat lose, insulation of the pipe required. The present study aims at parametric investigation of a different insulating materials and selection of optimum insulating material , which results in very minimal heat loss and minimal thickness.


Keywords: Hot fluid, heat loss, insulation, minimal heat loss and minimal thickness

Why did you choose to work on this project topic : It deals with determination of suitable insulating material,which would decrease the material consumed and decrease the cost along with increasing the hot water carrying efficiency.The industries are also working on composite materials to be choosen for pipe insulation.
This project however limits to a pipe carrying hot-fluid but its applications can also be seen in domestic and industrial applications.
A pipe section(test section) of 300mm(3 100mm sections)was used with 3 different insulating materials wound around the pipe sections.Then water was heated to a stable temperature and passed through the pipe.Two multi-meters were used to measure entry and exit temperature at each section(Totally 6)
The experiment was repeated for 3 different trials and they were tabulated.Excel sheet was used to make calculations for determination of critical thickness of insulating material i.e optimal thickness and
Finally after comparison the composite of mud and choir was selected as the best suited insulating material for the pipe carrying hot fluid.

Parameters
Specific heat of hot water = 1.996 kJ/kgK
Length of each pipe section =30mm
Number of pipe sections=3
Thermal conductivity of first layer (K1)=16 W/mk
Thermal conductivity of second layer or insulation layer (K2)=0.44 W/mk
Thermal conductivity of outer layer (K3)=16 W/mk
Where K1&K3 are Steel material and K2 is mud,plaster of paris and composite of choir and mud.

Project Category : Mechanical / Automobile / Aeronautical
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Institute/College Name: B.V.Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering
City: Hubli
State: Karnataka
Participating Team From: Third Year