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Steam Tracing

Heat tracing is used to prevent heat loss from process fluids being transported in process
fluid pipes, when there is risk of damage to piping, or interference with operation such as
fouling or blockage, caused by the congealing, increase in viscosity, or separation of
components, in the fluid below certain temperatures, or when there is risk of formation of
corrosive substances or water due to condensation in corrosive services. This prevention of
heat loss is accomplished by employing electrical tracing, or steam tracing, and insulating
both the process fluid pipe and the tracer together, using appropriate insulation lagging, in
an attempt to minimize heat loss from the pipe and tracer to their surroundings.

The existing software that was used to design steam tracing had to be evaluated in terms of
its accuracy and reliability, as problems associated with steam tracing designed with the
existing software have occurred in the past. A software simulation had to be designed that
could compare theoretical inputs and outputs with that of an existing simulation used to
design steam tracing, as well as compare it to existing installed steam tracing, in order to
determine where improvements in the software could be made.

The new software had to use the outputs from the existing software as inputs and its outputs
had to correspond to the inputs of the existing software. Other important evaluations were
also included in the new software.

Theory

The term Heat Tracing is inclusive for two methods used in the conservation of temperature.
The first method is known as electrical heat tracing, and the second is known as steam
tracing. Electrical heat tracing may be described as an insulated electrical heating cable,
which is spiraled around the process fluid pipe, after which the pipe and tracing is insulated
with the appropriate type and thickness of insulation lagging material. While this method of
heat tracing may be installed with relative ease compared to steam tracing, it is more
expensive, and poses several risks. The most important of these, being the risk of electric
spark, which may cause electric shock or ignite flammable substances resulting in
explosions or fire. If electrical heat tracing is not carefully controlled, there is also the
possibility that the cable could overheat and damage the pipe or insulation. This also renders
the tracing cable unusable and the cable needs to be replaced.

Steam tracing is described by attaching a smaller pipe containing saturated steam, also
known as the tracer, parallel to the process fluid pipe. The two pipes are then also insulated
together with the specified insulation and jacketed if necessary. Steam tracing is more labor
intensive to install than electrical heat tracing, but there are very few risks associated with it.
The temperature of the tracer also cannot exceed the maximum saturation temperature of
the steam, as it operates at specific steam pressures.

Steam tracing may be done in one of two ways. Bare steam tracing is the most popular
choice as it is fairly easily installed and maintained and it is ideally suited to lower
temperature requirements. It is simply composed of a half inch or three quarters of an inch
pipe attached to the process fluid pipe by straps and both pipes are then insulated together.
The other available option is to make use of cemented steam tracing, during which heat
conductive cement is placed around the steam tracer running parallel to the process fluid
pipe, (shown in figure 1b), in an attempt to increase the contact area available for heat
transfer, between the tracer and the process fluid pipe.
It is necessary to foster a better understanding of the heat loss distribution through an
insulated pipe containing steam tracing, before continuing the discussion. For this purpose,
detailed diagrams depicting the cross-sections of the two types of tracing methods are given
below, in Figures 1a and b:

Figures 1a and 1b: Bare versus Cemented Tracer


Because the area around the process fluid pipe and tracer cannot be accurately described
simply by assuming perfect cylindrical geometry, provision had to be made for a realistic
impression of the true geometry. Detailed derivations of formulas are included in Appendix 1.
Heat transfer across a surface occurs according to the following equation: (Coulson &
Richardson, 1999:634-688)
Eq. (1)
The following equations were derived in determining the different areas across which heat
transfer occurs:

Eq. (2)

For bare tracing, the following formulas were derived:


Eq. (3)

Eq. (4)

Eq. (5)

Eq. (6)
Eq. (7)

Eq. (8)

Eq. (9)

Eq. (10)

Eq. (11)

Eq. (12)

The following equation was used to determine the hottest surface temperature for bare
tracing: (Le Roux, D.F. (1997) Thermal Insulation and Heat Tracing, Guideline presented by
D.F. le Roux, Secunda):

Eq.
(13
)

Eq. (14)
Eq. (15)

For cemented tracing, the following formulas were derived:

Eq. (16)

Eq. (17)

Eq. (18)

Eq. (19)

Eq. (20)

Eq. (21)

Eq. (22)
Eq. (23)

Eq. (24)

Eq. (25)

The following equation was used to determine the hottest surface temperature for cemented
tracing:

Eq. (26)

where:

Eq.
(27)
Experimental

The cross sections of the bare traced and cemented traced pipes are given in Figures 3a
and 3b, respectively. These figures illustrate how the geometric approach was used in
describing the heat loss through the system, taking into account that spherical geometry was
not assumed. The independent variables for the design were as follows, and were all
specified variables in the software simulation:
Figure 3b: Cemented Tracer

Figure 3a: Bare Tracer


Independent Variables
Time, s
(0 to maximum length for steam
Pipe length
trap), m
Steam pressure (240 to 1700 kPa)
Nominal process fluid pipe size (0.50 to 48 inches)
Number of available tracers (0 to 5)
Nominal pipe size of tracer pipe (0.50 to 0.75 inches)
(0 to process fluid pipe diameter),
Insulation thickness
m
Emissivity of insulation lagging (0 to 1)
Ambient temperature (-10 to 50 Â °C)
Wind velocity (0 to 72 km/h)
Dependent Variables
(Process fluid temperature to Steam
Annulus temperature
Temperature)
Saturated steam temperature (126.1 to 204.3 Â ºC)
Steam consumption (0 to 50 kg/h)
Process fluid temperature (0 to 600 Â ºC)
Pipe outer radius (10.668 to 609.62 mm)
Pipe wall thickness (1.3974 to 15.6869 mm)
Pipe inner radius (6.401 to 1219.2 mm)
Pipe wall thermal conductivity (16 to 401 W/mK)
Steam tracer outside radius (6.35 to 9.53 mm)
Maximum tracer length (30 to 60 m)
Thermal conductivity of insulation (0.01241 to 0.1120 W/mK)
Average insulation temperature (Ambient temp. to Steam temp.)
Surface temperature (N/A), K
Surface film coefficient (N/A), W/m2K

The main deliverable was to obtain the minimum temperature at which the process fluid had
to enter the pipeline, but other information such as the wall temperature and steam
consumption were also important.

The interface designed for the simulation is shown in Fig. 3c and was written in Microsoft
Excel:
Figure 3c: Interface
The detailed design and calculations can be found in Appendix 1. The design was done
following an unconventional approach, in an attempt to make as few assumptions as
possible.

Most of the equations were fundamentally derived, but some equations were employed from
other sources. (See References)

All the necessary equations were developed and simplified to eliminate ambiguity. The
equations were then solved simultaneously and by making use of iterations.

The inputs to the simulation were highlighted in yellow, on the left side of the page, and the
outputs were highlighted blue, on the right hand side, to eliminate ambiguity in deciding
which were inputs and which were outputs.

The inputs section mostly made use of drop-down menus to facilitate data input, and mostly
made use of referencing techniques to look up the necessary values used in the
calculations. For example, the user was only required to choose the NPS of the process fluid
pipe, and the schedule number, and the program automatically looked up the outer diameter,
inside diameter and wall thicknesses from a table containing accurate standard values for
pipe sizes.

Also, the user was only required to specify the insulation material type, steam pressure, and
ambient temperature, which the program used to calculate an average insulation
temperature, and interpolate between different k-values, to obtain the specific thermal
conductivity at that specific temperature, since thermal conductivity is temperature
dependent. The program also used the lagging emissivity, together with the ambient
temperature, surface temperature and wind velocity, to calculate an exact value for the
surface film coefficient on the outside, which needed to be very accurate.

The program was also able to calculate a maximum surface temperature, to ensure safety
protection for personnel, as the surface temperature, by standard, is not allowed to exceed
60 ºC. Temperatures higher than this would result in injury caused by touching the outside
surface.

The steam consumption was also calculated by determining the heat loss from the system
for a certain length of pipe. The steam is invariably subject to heat loss, and thus
condensation, when sufficient heat has been lost. This corresponds to the maximum length
of a tracer. Fresh, saturated steam then needs to be re-introduced into the system, to ensure
efficient operation, and a steam trap needs to be installed at the end of the maximum length,
to collect all the condensate which has formed. The condensate may be recycled to create
new steam.

The simulation made use of macros, in the sense that the program automatically performs
the calculations necessary to converge the answers to a final answer, by simply requiring the
user to press a shortcut key.
Results and Discussion

Due to the nature of the project, definite answers are not possible to obtain, but rather
different simulations could be run and each time the answers could be evaluated. As an
example, one specific run could be described in terms of its equations as follows:

Consider the Bare Tracer.

Firstly, the inputs field has to be completed (see Table 1):

Table 1: Input Fields .

Table 2: Output Fields

After this has been done, the outputs section may be calculated:

Some of the outputs are values found in making use of references from other tables. These
are shown first in Table 2
This information can now be used together with the inputs section to calculate the remaining
outputs.

Firstly, the Average Insulation Temperature is calculated from Eq. (9):

it is found that Tins=36.67 ºC

It should be noted that the Process fluid Temperature is not known yet, so this is not a final
answer.

Secondly, the Annulus Temperature may be calculated from Eq. (8):

Tann=76.4 ºC

Since Tp is not known yet, and Tins has not yet been assigned a definite value, this value is
also not fixed yet.

Now, the Average Surface Temperature needs to be calculated. This value may be
approximated by assuming that about 80% of the average surface temperature is due to the
process fluid temperature and the remaining 20% is made up of the surface temperature on
the tracer side. The Average Surface Temperature may then be calculated as follows.

From Eq.(13) and (14):


for the tracer side

and

for the process fluid pipe side

Therefore

The surface temperature is now calculated by making use of iterations to obtain the final
value of

Tsurf-Avg = 14.991 ºC

This causes the value of q to change until it stabilizes to its final answer.

Technically speaking, one has to calculate the area ratios that the process fluid pipe,
annulus length and tracer each contribute, calculate each areas surface temperature, and
obtain the average value for the surface temperature accordingly, but due to the limited
capacity of Microsoft Excel, this method was tried and it failed, because Excel could not
perform all the iterations necessary to do the calculations. The above calculation has shown
to give satisfactory results for most situations.

As a next step, the surface coefficient needs to be calculated using Eq.(15):

The value for the surface coefficient then becomes:

h0=10.1

k1 is calculated using Eq.(10):


but according to Eq.(5),

and

therefore, k1=18.21340591
k2 may then be calculated using Eq.(11):

and therefore amounts to k2= 0.489641399

Finally the Process Fluid Temperature can be calculated using Eq.(12):

Excel is then programmed to perform iterations automatically, since a circular reference is


created, but it causes all of the values to converge consequently, and the final answers are
obtained, and with the final values of Tins known, the correct thermal conductivity values can
be obtained and used in the equations:

kins = 0.02712 W/m K


kw = 53.3 W/m K

References

Le Roux, D.F. (1997) Thermal Insulation and Heat Tracing, Guideline presented by line
manager D.F. le Roux, Secunda.

Foo, K.W. (1994) Sizing tracers quickly (Part 1). Hydrocarbon Processing, p93-97. January.
Sizing tracers quickly (Part 2). Hydrocarbon Processing, p93-97. February.

Fisch, E. (1984) Winterising process plants. Chemical Engineering, p128-143, 20 August.

Kenny, T.M. (1992) Steam tracing: do it right. Chemical Engineering Progress, p40-44, August.

Coulson, J.M and Richardson, J.F. (1999) Chemical Engineering, R.K. Sinnot, London.
Le Roux, D.F. (2005) Theoretical discussion and problem description, Sasol Limited, Secunda.

Van der Spuy, E. (2005) Theoretical advice, and steam traps, Spirax Sarco, Secunda.

Smit, J. (2005) Practical information, Sasol Limited, Secunda.

Technical committee of specification SP 50-4, (2004) Specification SP 50-4 Revision 2 for


Steam and Hot Water Tracing, Sasol Limited, Secunda.

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