Heat Loss of Insulated Pipes in Cross-Flow Winds

Abstract

In recent years, there has been unprecedented interest shown in the Arctic region by the industry as it has become increasingly accessible for oil and gas exploration. This paper reviews existing literature on heat transfer coefficients and presents a comprehensive study of the heat transfer phenomenon in horizontal pipes (single/multiple pipe configurations) subjected to cross-flow wind besides the test methodology used to determine heat transfer coefficients through experiments. In this study, cross-flow winds of 5 m/s, 10 m/s, and 15 m/s blowing over several single pipe and multiple pipe configurations of diameter 25 mm and 50 mm steel pipes with insulation are examined. Based on the findings, the best correlation for use by the industry for single and multiple pipe configurations was found to be Churchill–Bernstein correlation. The deviation from the theoretical calculations and the experimental data for this correlation was found to be in the range of 0.40–1.61% for a 50 mm insulated pipe and −3.86% to −2.79% for a 25 mm insulated pipe. In the case of a multiple pipe configurations, the deviation was in the range 0.5–2.82% for 50 mm insulated pipe and 12–14% for 25 mm insulated pipes.