Scribd
Upload
9 views4 pages

6: Critical Radius of Insulating Material

The document discusses the concept of critical radius in insulating materials, explaining that adding insulation can initially increase heat loss until a certain thickness, known as the critical radius, is reached. It provides equations to calculate the critical radius based on the conductivity of the insulating material and the convective heat transfer coefficient. Additionally, it includes specifications for test pieces and observations related to heat input and surface area measurements.

Uploaded by

ayush.prasad0505
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views4 pages

6: Critical Radius of Insulating Material

The document discusses the concept of critical radius in insulating materials, explaining that adding insulation can initially increase heat loss until a certain thickness, known as the critical radius, is reached. It provides equations to calculate the critical radius based on the conductivity of the insulating material and the convective heat transfer coefficient. Additionally, it includes specifications for test pieces and observations related to heat input and surface area measurements.

Uploaded by

ayush.prasad0505
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

6: CRITICAL RADIUS OF INSULATING MATERIAL

Whenever there exists any hot cylinder of pipe ( e. g. steam piping ) it is customary to put
the insulation around the pipe. Naturally, one would expect that thicker the insulation, the
lesser will be the heat loss from pipe. But it is not the case always.
THEORY
As stated above, addition of insulation does not always reduce heat loss. As
thickness of insulation increases, heat loss also increases to certain limit called critical
radius of insulation. Addition of insulation there after reduce the heat loss.
To determine the value of critical radius at q max, the equation is given as,
1 1
k*r
ETTIE b 12TTT?oL)
or ( r ) critical radius = k / ho
where, k = Conductivityof insulating material.
ho = Convective heat transfer coefficient.
Hence, for a particular insulating material for a particular value ofho, ifouter radius

is less than rcr, than addition of insulation will increase the heat loss till the actual radius

equals to rcr. Further addition of insulation reduces the heat loss.

SPECIFICATIONS:

L 33mm O.D. and 260mm length, G.I. pipes, provided with cartridge heaters inside
and plaster of Paris insulation of different thickness outside. The thickness
of
TPI = 10mm (dia. 53 mm )
= 2-6.S
TP2= 15.5 mm (dia. 64 mm )
32
TP3 = 25.5 mm (dia. 84 mm )

TP4 = 36.5 mm (dia. 106 mm )

34
OBSERVATION TABLE

Sr. no. Test piece Input Ti Oc TO


voltage current
TPI
12-0 89
2 TP2
IOS o.cs 83 €8.2S
3 TP3
loo o -c 25 T6=
4 TP4
o.sns suns
Ambient temperature (T9)

\c.sq-s-, 2c.sc«n
l. Heat input,q = V xl watts.

2. Surface area (A) of.. - o. coq

i) TPI = 0.0433 m2
Rcmv- —
ii) TP2 = 0.0523 m2 (Z-ÄB-tC)
2G.C3
— iii) TP3 = 0.0686 m2
y.qc iv) TP4 = 0.0866 rn 2 — o.C7q
31-45 32-51
3.Convective heat transfer coefficient,
q A
W/m2K =
A.(Ts-T9)
0.0533 (RI-3S)
k
4.Critical radius, cr = — (where, k = 0.48 w/ m . k ) =
h
0.01
D.GDhJtD.Cn
GRAPH : Plot the graph of 'heat input' v/s 'actual radius'.

37
CQNCIJTTIQN:
o.o\Snm
i) Critical radius for ho = 32 Sl was found to be
----- m.
ii) Heat lost (i.e. heat input ) was maximum fpr test piece of critical radius.
iii) empu.XD u.sa-.b
-fru:.s occu.s--z
PRECAUTIONS:
i) Operate all the switches and knobs gently.
il) Before putting 'ON' the main switch see that all the dimmerstats are at zero
position and all the selector switches are in upward direction.
iii)Check that 'earthling' is connected to the unit.
iv) Use only one meter selector switch at a time.

sstxs-toe,s
of

•D sk-a.*e p%ecku-d _

{q) us-l.EQ%-e
Hea.k (KJ) Scale :

IOS

80

co

SC

D ZC Z 8 30 3C 38 40 "2 SC

You might also like