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The Critical Radius of Insulation

The critical radius of insulation is the thickness at which adding more insulation to a cylindrical or spherical object will stop decreasing and start increasing the object's heat transfer rate. For a cylinder, this critical radius depends on the insulation's thermal conductivity and the external convection heat transfer coefficient. In practice, the critical radius is usually small enough that insulating hot water pipes does not risk enhancing heat transfer. Electric wires' radii may fall below the critical level, so their plastic casings can paradoxically help dissipate heat.

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195 views2 pages

The Critical Radius of Insulation

The critical radius of insulation is the thickness at which adding more insulation to a cylindrical or spherical object will stop decreasing and start increasing the object's heat transfer rate. For a cylinder, this critical radius depends on the insulation's thermal conductivity and the external convection heat transfer coefficient. In practice, the critical radius is usually small enough that insulating hot water pipes does not risk enhancing heat transfer. Electric wires' radii may fall below the critical level, so their plastic casings can paradoxically help dissipate heat.

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Alejandro
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Module2:STEADYSTATECONDUCTION

Lecture6:THECRITICALRADIUSOFINSULATION

Weknowthatbyaddingmoreinsulationtoawallalwaysdecreasesheattransfer.Thethickertheinsulation,the
lower the heat transfer rate. This is expected, since the heat transfer area Ais constant, and adding insulation
alwaysincreasesthethermalresistanceofthewallwithoutaffectingtheconvectionresistance.

Addinginsulationtoacylindricalpieceorasphericalshell,however,isadifferentmatter.Theadditionalinsulation
increasestheconductionresistanceoftheinsulationlayerbutdecreasestheconvectionresistanceofthesurface
becauseoftheincreaseintheoutersurfaceareaforconvection.Theheattransferfromthepipemayincreaseor
decrease,dependingonwhicheffectdominates.

Consideracylindricalpipeofouterradiusr1 whoseoutersurfacetemperatureT1 ismaintainedconstant(Figure.

2.15).Thepipeisnowinsulatedwithamaterialwhosethermalconductivityiskandouterradiusisr2 .Heatislost

fromthepipetothesurroundingmediumattemperature ,withaconvectionheattransfercoefficienth.Therate

ofheattransferfromtheinsulatedpipetothesurroundingaircanbeexpressedas(Figure.2.16)



(2.56)

Figure2.15InsulatedCylindricalPipe

Thevariationofheattransferratewiththeouterradiusofinsulationr2 isplottedinFigure2.16.Thevalueofr2 at

whichheattransferratereachesmaximumisdeterminedfromtherequirementthat (zeroslope).Performing
thedifferentiationandsolvingforr2 yieldsthecriticalradiusofinsulationforacylindricalbodytobe

(2.57)

Notethatthecriticalradiusofinsulationdependsonthethermalconductivityoftheinsulationkandtheexternal
convectionheattransfercoefficienth. The rate of heat transfer from the cylinder increases with the addition of
insulationforr2 <rcr,reachesamaximumwhenr2 =rcr,andstartstodecreaseforr2 >rcr.Thus,insulatingthepipe
mayactuallyincreasetherateofheattransferfromthepipeinsteadofdecreasingitwhenr2 <rcr.
Figure2.16VariationOfHeatTransferRateWithRadius

Theimportantquestiontoansweratthispointistowhetherweneedtobeconcernedaboutthecriticalradiusof
insulationwheninsulatinghotwaterpipesorevenhotwatertanks.Shouldwealwayscheckandmakesurethat
the outer radius of insulation exceeds the critical radius before we install any insulation? Probably not, as
explainedbelow.

Thevalueofthecriticalradiusrcrwillbethelargestwhenkislargeandhissmall.Notingthatthelowestvalueofh
encountered in practice is about 5 W/m2 K for the case of natural convection of gases, and that the thermal
conductivityofcommoninsulatingmaterialsis0.05W/m2 K,thelargestvalueofthecriticalradiuswearelikelyto
encounteris

Thisvaluewouldbeevensmallerwhentheradiationeffectsareconsidered.Thecriticalradiuswouldbemuch
less in forced convection, often less than 1 mm, because of much larger h values associated with forced
convection.Therefore,wecaninsulatehotwaterorsteampipesfreelywithoutworryingaboutthepossibilityof
increasingtheheattransferbyinsulatingthepipes.

Theradiusofelectricwiresmaybesmallerthanthecriticalradius.Therefore,theplasticelectricalinsulationmay
actuallyenhancetheheattransferfromelectricwiresandthuskeeptheirsteadyoperatingtemperaturesatlower
andthussaferlevels.

Thediscussionsabovecanberepeatedforasphere,anditcanbeshowninasimilarmannerthatthecritical
radiusofinsulationforasphericalshellis

(2.58)

wherekisthethermalconductivityoftheinsulationandhistheconvectionheattransfercoefficientontheouter
surface.

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