Analytical model of heat transfer in porous insulation around cold pipes

Tom Guldbrandsen
a,
, Per W. Karlsson
b
, Vagn Korsgaard
a
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK2800 Lyngby, Denmark
b
Department of Mathematics, Technical University of Denmark, DK2800 Lyngby, Denmark
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 1 July 2010
Received in revised form14 September 2010
Accepted 14 September 2010
Keywords:
Insulation
Condensation
Piping
Moisture
Aircon
Wicking
a b s t r a c t
A thermal insulation system is analysed that consists of a cold tube insulated with a porous material
faced with a vapour retarding foil.
Water vapour will diffuse through the vapour retarding foil and condense on the cold tube. To avoid
build-up of water in the insulation a hydrophilic wicking cloth is wrapped around the cold tube and
extended through a slit in the tubular insulation and a slot in the facing to the ambient so that condensed
water can evaporate into the air. Some of the moisture in that part of the wicking cloth situated in the slit
in the tubular insulation will diffuse backwards to the cold pipe and contribute to the heat uptake of the
cold tube. This part is calculated for the stationary case and compared with the sensible heat transfer
through the tubular shaped insulation material, using measured dry k values and measured ctitious
moist k values.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Air conditioning installations in warm humid climates include
piping carrying chilled water from the refrigeration plant to the
chillers in the rooms to be air-conditioned.
Usually the temperature of the chilled water and hence the sur-
face temperature of the piping will be below the dew point of the
ambient air which means that the water vapour in the air will con-
dense on the piping. To prevent dripping, which of course is unac-
ceptable, the piping must be thermally insulated. The thickness of
the insulation must be sufcient to increase the surface tempera-
ture of the insulation to be equal to or higher than the dew point
of the ambient air.
As insulation materials are not completely water vapour tight,
measures must be taken to minimize water vapour from diffusing
into the insulation. This ow of water vapour leads to interstitial
condensation in the insulation layer and dew formation on the sur-
face of the pipe itself. Interstitial condensation will reduce the
insulation value and may cause deterioration of the insulation
material, and dew formation on a metal pipe may cause corrosion.
This results in a signicant waste of energy and loss of process con-
trol from the original design. Wet insulation can also contribute to
indoor environmental problems by either promoting mould
growth on exterior surfaces of the insulation or dripping water
onto other building materials.
Besides, by diffusion moisture can enter into the insulation with
moist air through slits and aws in the vapour retarder facing due
to barometric pressure uctuations and, for vertical piping, due to
the inverse chimney effect as well. The amount due to barometric
uctuations will be insignicant compared to the other
contributions.
The amount due to the inverse chimney effect can be signicant
and should be prevented by an airtight but diffusion open tape
over the wick slot in the vapour retarder facing.
Different measures are available to control water vapour trans-
fer into thermally insulated piping and hence reduce the amount of
condensation. (ISO 15758).
(a) Installing a vapour retarder on the surface of diffusion open
insulation materials.
(b) Use of insulation materials with a high water vapour resis-
tance factor (low permeability).
(c) Use of a capillary active fabric to continuously remove con-
densed water fromthe pipe surface to the environment. (The
wicking concept) [1].
The last measure was developed as a consequence of the fact that in
practice the two rst measures have not shown to be able to pre-
vent substantial moisture ingress into cold pipe insulation over
time.
0017-9310/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.09.044

Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: birtheogtom@mail.dk (T. Guldbrandsen), p.w.karlsson@mat.
dtu.dk (P.W. Karlsson), v.korsgaard@mail.tele.dk (V. Korsgaard).
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 288292
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ i j hmt
2. The wicking concept
A hydrophilic wicking cloth is wrapped fully or partly around
the cold pipe and extended through a slit in the tubular insulation
to the outer surface of the insulation. The water vapour condensing
in the wick around the cold pipe will by capillary action be sucked
to the surface of the insulation from where it can evaporate into
the ambient air [2,4].
When the condensed water is sucked out through the slit in the
insulation, its temperature will increase, and hence also its vapour
pressure. When reaching the outer surface it will be close to the
saturation pressure, at the ambient air temperature.
In practice the porous tubular insulation is covered with a va-
pour retarder facing or jacket to reduce the diffusion of water va-
pour into the insulation. The wicking cloth is extended through a
slot in the facing/jacket and adhered to the outer surface, Fig. 1.
For insulation materials with a very high permeability (e.g. min-
eral wool) the vapour retarding facing/jacket will cause the water
vapour to diffuse directly to the surface of the cold pipe and not
condense in the bre matrix, and hence the insulation will stay
dry. This has been veried by X-ray scanning of the insulated pipe
as shown in Fig. 2.
In contrast to the very vapour permeable mineral wool, mois-
ture will condense in closed cell insulation where the temperature
is below the dew point of the ambient air.
The moisture content in the wick is found by experiment to be
less than 50% of the saturation value. Even though the heat
conductivity of water is approximately 15 times larger than that
of mineral wool, the water content in the thin wick around the pipe
will only have a marginal inuence on the insulation value.
3. Backward diffusion
However, one could expect that water evaporating from the
moist wick in the slit will diffuse backwards to the tube and con-
dense and hence increase the heat ow signicantly and conse-
quently decrease the insulation value.
As it is difcult to measure this diffusion ow directly the pur-
pose of this paper is to set up a mathematical solution to the
problem.
4. The physical system
The physical system to be mathematically investigated is
shown on Fig. 1.
Nomenclature
a real constant (dimensionless)
D diffusion coefcient (of water vapour in air) (m
2
/s)
h latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
H heat ow density per length (W/m)
i imaginary unit (dimensionless)
k real constant (dimensionless)
m molecular weight (kg/kmol)
n whole number (dimensionless)
P water vapour pressure (Pa)
r radius (m)
R gas constant 8.32 10
3
(J/(kmol K))
p permeance (kg/(m
2
s Pa))
T temperature (K)
Greek symbols
u angle (radians)
k heat conductivity (W/(m K))
Subscripts
amb ambient
b backward diffusion
dry dry insulation
moist moist insulation
o outside (at vapour retarder)
r vapour retarder facing
i inside (at cold tube)
Alufoil vapour retarder
Insulation
Wick fabric
Cold pipe Condensation
T
i
r
o
T
amb
r
i
T
o
Backward
diffusion
Fig. 1. Cross section of cold pipe insulated according to the Hygrowick concept.
Fig. 2. The picture is constructed from a computer calculation based upon scanned
X-ray transmission data. Because the variations in density are small the uncertainty
is considerable. Nevertheless a qualitatively correct variation versus radius and
along the wet wick is clearly seen. Colours refer to the internet version of the article.
Gray scale (in brackets) refer to the paper version. The wick around the cold pipe is
moist: yellow (gray). The insulation close to the wick and the wick in the slit is
hygroscopic moist: fuzzy yellow (fuzzy light gray). Most of the insulation is dry:
green (dark gray). The steel pipe and the xture are red (black). The air in the pipe
and the surroundings is transparent to x-rays. The colour is blue (black). Compare
Fig. 1.
T. Guldbrandsen et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 288292 289
Choudhary et al. [2] have set up a mathematical model of the
system shown and by numerical calculations demonstrated that
the pipe insulation system incorporating the wicking concept is
effective in getting the condensed moisture out of the insulation
system.
In the steady state situation the amount of water vapour diffus-
ing through the vapour retarder facing equals the amount of con-
densed water evaporating from the protruding part of the wick.
As mentioned above some of the moisture in the wick in the slit
will evaporate and diffuse backwards to the surface of the cold
tube and condense. This moisture ow also represents a heat ux
that will decrease the insulation value of the system. The decrease
is difcult to measure directly. In the present paper an analytical
model is developed to calculate this heat ux. The results of the
model have been veried using laboratory experiments.
5. Mathematical model
5.1. Derivation of the analytical solution for the stationary distribution
of water vapour pressure P in the insulation
The analytical solution is found by solving the Laplace equation
with the known boundary conditions. One could object that the
water vapour pressure does not exactly full the Laplace equation
since the diffusion coefcient is varying with temperature. The rel-
ative change in diffusion coefcient is, nevertheless, neglected
since it is small compared to the relative change in water vapour
pressure. We consider this approximation as reasonable in view
of the modest requirement for precision.
We are looking for a solution to the Laplace equation in polar
coordinates with radius r and angle /.
The traditionally used partial solutions are of the form
P
p1
r; / r
k
expiku 1
where i is the imaginary unit, k is a real constant and all four com-
binations of signs are possible [3].
The possible values of k are determined by the boundary
conditions.
Because of the special geometry caused by the wick and by the
retarding foil (see Fig. 1) it is preferable to use the slightly different
form:
P
p2
r; u r
ik
expku 2
where k is still real.
From (2) we can create the linear combination:
P
p3
r; u sin k ln
r
r
i
_ _ _ _
coshk u 3
where r
i
is radius of the cold tube and u = p at the wick in the slit.
Expression (3) fulls the boundary condition that requires mir-
ror symmetry around the slit.
Let
k
n

2n 1 p
2 ln
ro
r
i
_ _ 4
where n P0 is a whole number and r
o
is the radius of the retarding
foil. Then for k = k
n
, n = 0, 1,2 . . ., Eq. (3) also fulls the boundary
condition that the diffusion ow density through the retarding foil
must be zero (to a rst approximation). In order to full the bound-
ary condition at the cold tube we must nally add the known va-
pour pressure P
i
at the cold tube.
After insertion of (4) into (3) and summation over all n we can
express the complete solution to the Laplace equation for the water
vapour as:
Pr; u P
i
P
o
P
i

1
n0
a
n
coshk
n
p
sin k
n
ln
r
r
i
_ _ _ _
coshk
n
u
_ _
5
where P
o
is the vapour pressure P(r
o
, p). If we insert this in (5) we
nd the constraint:

1
0
a
n
1
n
1 6
P
o
can be calculated from the known temperature at that position.
The coefcients a
n
can be determined if the water vapour pres-
sure along the wick in the slit is known.
5.2. Calculation of heat transfer caused by backward diffusion
The heat transfer H
b
per length of the pipe due to backward dif-
fusion is approximately given by:
H
b
2h
H
2
O
D
H
2
O

m
H
2
O
R T
_
ro
r
i
1
r
@
@u
Pr; u
_ _
up
dr 7
where the factor 2 is due to the diffusion to both sides from the
wick. h
H
2
O
is the latent heat of vaporization, D
H
2
O
is the diffusion
coefcient and m
H
2
O
is the molar weight of water vapour. R is the
gas constant and T is the absolute temperature.
As mentioned before we have neglected the temperature
dependence of the diffusion coefcient. Similarly we now neglect
the temperature dependence of the latent heat.
In (7) we then insert the mean temperature and the latent heat
and diffusion coefcient at the mean temperature.
By inserting (5) in (7) and applying the substitution u = k
n
ln(r/r
i
)
the integral in (7) can be calculated as
I

1
n0
a
n
k
n
tanhp k
n

1
k
n
_
2n1
p
2
0
sinudu
_ _

1
n0
a
n
tanhp k
n
%

1
n0
a
n
8
where the approximation in (8) is justied because the argument of
the tanh function is large for all realistic values of r
i
and r
o
and for
all n.
Insertion of (8) in (7) then yields:
H
b
2h
H
2
O
D
H
2
O

m
H
2
O
R T
P
o
P
i

1
0
a
n
9
Example based upon case 2 in [2]:
With an ambient temperature of 305 K (32 C) and a cold tube
temperature of 275 K (2 C) the temperature at (r, p) is determined
numerically to be %285 K (12 C) so the average temperature along
the wick is 280 K (7 C) and we get: h
H
2
O
= 2.510
6
J/kg,
D
H
2
O
= 2.510
-5
m
2
/s, m
H
2
O
= 18 kg/kmol, P
i
= 700 Pa, P
o
= 1400 Pa
(at 285 K) [5].
It seems reasonable to assume that partial solutions with low
values of a
n
are dominating.
As an example, let a
0
= 1 and all other coefcients a
n
= 0.
After insertion in (9) we then nd: H
b
= 0.68 W/m.
As another example consider the case a
0
0 and a
1
= 0 and
a
n
= 0 for all other values of n:
It seems obvious that P(r, p) must vary monotonously from r
i
to
r
o
. It can be shown that this requirement leads to the limits:
1/8 Pa
1
P1/4 corresponding to 9/8 Pa
0
P3/4 and thus to
5/4 PI P1/2 and, nally, to 0.85 W/m > H
b
> 0.34 W/m.
For comparison the heat ow density of the same tube with dry
insulation and without a wick is given by:
290 T. Guldbrandsen et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 288292
H
dry
2p
k T
o
T
i

ln
ro
r
i
_ _ 10
With k = 0,04 W/(m K) (typical for porous insulation) and r
o
/r
i
= 2.5
we nd: H
dry
= 8.2 W/m. Hence, in this example, the backwards dif-
fusion represents 11%, respectively 5.6% of the dry heat ow.
5.3. Calculation of heat transfer due to diffusion of water vapour
through a non-ideal vapour retarder and directly to the cold tube
Only in the start up period water vapour in the ambient air will
be able to diffuse through the slot in the facing. The start up period
will last until the water vapour pressure in the wick in the slot has
reached a value equal to the water vapour pressure in the ambient
air and equilibrium is established.
If the vapour retarder facing is not completely diffusion tight
the vapour pressure in the wick will increase to the saturation
pressure at a temperature close to the ambient temperature. A lar-
ger part of the protruding wick will then be moist enabling evapo-
ration of the intruding vapour. This vapour will in turn condense
on the cold pipe and be sucked backwards by the wick in the slit
to the protruding part of the wick.
With r
o
= 40 mm, an ambient temperature of 305 K and a rela-
tive humidity of 90% the ambient water vapour pressure is
4270 Pa. From (5) it appears that for all angles not too close to p
the vapour pressure just inside the vapour retarder is close to the
vapour pressure P
i
= 705 Pa at the cold tube. With a permeance
of 1 perm = 5.7 10
11
kg/(m
2
s Pa) we then approximately nd:
H
moist
P
amb
P
i
2p r
o
h
H
2
O
5:7 10
11
kg=m
2
sPa
0:13 W=m$ 1:6% of H
dry
11
6. Experimental verication
It is difcult, as already mentioned, to measure the backward
diffusion directly. Indirectly, however, it should be possible to ver-
ify the backward diffusion as calculated by the above-developed
analytical solution. This is done by rst measuring the k-value of
the dry insulation k
dry
. Then k
dry
is compared with the k-value mea-
sured when the state of equilibrium for the same test tube has
been established after a certain period of time in a moist
environment.
Such tests have been carried out at the testing laboratory FIW
(Forschungs Institut fr Wrmeschutz) in Munich, Germany.
The test tubes used consisted of a steel pipe with an outer
diameter of 54 mm insulated with a 30 mm of glass wool faced
with a glass bre reinforced Al-foil and with the wicking system
integrated as shown in Fig. 1. So for the test tube r
o
= 57 mm,
r
i
= 27 mm.
The test tube was rst placed in a dry environment and the heat
uptake by the cold pipe was calculated by measuring the water
ow through the pipe and the temperature difference between
the inlet and outlet. The surface temperature of the Al-foil facing
was kept constant at 22 C and the water in the pipe at 6 C. From
these measured data the dry k-value of the glass bre material was
calculated to be 0.0311 W/(K m). The same test tube was then
placed in a climate chamber with a constant temperature of app.
23 C and a relative humidity of 80%. During the initial period of
a few weeks, water vapour from the air in the climate chamber dif-
fuses through the wick-slot in the Al-foil and condenses in the wick
around the cold test pipe. After this period, the weight of the
test-tube stabilised with a moisture content of 0.3% by volume that
remained unchanged during the subsequent 6 months period.
Practically all the condensed moisture was situated in the wick
around the tube and in the slit in the tubular glass wool shell.
The 0.3 volume% represents 0.3 mm of water layer around the cold
tube and will have no signicant inuence on the insulation value
of the tubular glass wool shell.
As the reinforced Al-foil facing was undamaged and the end
caps sealed, no further water vapour could enter the system, as
the vapour pressure in the wick in the slot in the Al-foil facing
was equal to the vapour pressure of the ambient air.
After a period of 6 months under stable conditions, the ctitious
k-value of the moist insulation material was measured to be
0.0330 W/(K m). This corresponds to a 6% increase of the dry k-
value.
7. Comparison between mathematical models and
experiments
The heat transfer from the ambient air to the cold tube can be
calculated from Eq. (10).
With T
o
T
i
= 226 = 16 K, r
o
/r
i
= 57/27 and k
dry
= 0.0311
W/(K m) we nd H
dry
= 4.18 W/m.
With k
moist
= 0.033 W/(K m) we nd H
moist
= 4.44 W/m.
The increase in H
dry
from 4.18 to 4.44, e.g. 0.26 W/m, corre-
sponds to approximately 6% of H
dry
and is assumed to be due to
the backward diffusion.
In comparison, H
b
is calculated using Eq. (9) with a
0
= 1, where
P
i
is the saturation vapour pressure at the cold tube temperature of
6 C viz., 940 Pa.
P
o
is the vapour pressure at the point where the wick protrudes
through the vapour retarder. Since (in contrast to case 2 in [2]) the
vapour retarder in this case is almost tight the net ow out of the
wick is small. This in turn means that the vapour pressure P
o
is only
slightly lower than the ambient vapour pressure P
a
.
With P
i
= 940 Pa and P
o
% P
a
= 2270 Pa (23, 80% rh) we get
P
o
P
i
% 1330 Pa and we nd the conservative value H
b
= 0.62
W/m corresponding to a 15% increase of H
dry
.
Another identical test tube was situated in a climate chamber
with the same temperature of 23 C but with a lower relative
humidity of 50%.
The dry k-value was measured to be k
dry
= 0.0315 W/(K m). After
13.5 months the moist k-value was measured to be
k
moist
= 0.0318 W/(K m) and the moisture content to be 0.2% by
volume.
Using Eq. (9), H
b
is calculated to be 0.223 W/m corresponding to
2.7% of H
dry
.
Using Eq. (10) we calculate H
dry
= 4.238 W/m with k
dry
=
0.0315 W/(K m), and with k
moist
= 0.0318 W/(K m), H
moist
=
4.278 W/m and hence H
moist
H
dry
= 0.040 W/m corresponding to
app. 1% increase of H
dry
.
8. Concluding remarks
A mathematical model was developed to calculate the back-
ward diffusion in a cold pipe insulation system incorporating
the wicking concept. The wick fabric wrapped around the pipe
extends through a slit in the tubular insulation. When hygrother-
mal equilibrium after some time has been established the mois-
ture in the wick fabric situated in the slit will evaporate and
diffuse backwards to the wick fabric wrapped around the cold
pipe and condense, and by capillary action be sucked back again.
This moisture evaporation/condensation circuit represents a heat
ow that will add to the heat uptake of the uid in the cold
pipe. This heat ow can be calculated by means of the mathe-
matical model developed in this paper. Laboratory experiments
measuring ctitious k values appear to conrm the mathematical
model.
Depending on the ambient conditions the backward diffusion
will increase the heat uptake by a few percent only.
T. Guldbrandsen et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 288292 291
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292 T. Guldbrandsen et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 54 (2011) 288292