Optimum insulation-thickness for thermal

and freezing protection

Y.F. Li
a
, W.K. Chow
b,
*
a
College of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Beijing University of Technology,
Beijing 100022, China
b
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Yuk Choi Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Accepted 23 February 2004
Available online 28 September 2004
Abstract
Methods for protecting water pipes, in cold regions against freezing, by thermal insulation
material and heating cable will be analyzed. Reliability of keeping the tubes wall temperature
of a piping system at minimum value will be analyzed. A thermoeconomic optimization
analysis is applied with a simple algebraic formula derived for estimating the optimum in-
sulation thickness for tubes of dierent sizes. The optimization is based on a life-cycle cost
analysis. The eects of design parameters on the optimum thickness are investigated. Predicted
results of this study would provide useful reference data when considering design, practical
operation or maintenance.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Insulation thickness; Optimization; Freeze protection; Tube
1. Introduction
Piping systems in cold regions, with water owing at very low or even near zero
velocity, should be protected against freezing. This is essential for those piping sys-
tems exposed to the open air. For example, the piping system for re ghting should
be maintained at above 4 C in a cold climate [1]. If that minimum temperature of 4 C
cannot be always maintained, a dry pipe system should be used. At least, antifreeze
*
Corresponding author. Fax: +852-2765-7198.
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2004.02.009
www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
APPLIED
ENERGY
solution is put into the piping system. Another example is the piping system for
supplying potable water. This is an open circuit and when the utilization is low,
water in the piping network would have a low ow velocity. Exposing part of the
piping system would get the water freezing in places with very cold climates. Thermal
lagging might not be feasible as a knowledge of heat transfer demonstrated that the
insulation envelope is only workable for protecting small tubes against freezing [2].
Recently, heating cables [3] have been used for protecting metal and plastic pipes
against freezing. There, the pipe would be wound around by heating cables and
regulated by an electrical thermostat with a sensor for limiting the temperature.
Quick and eective regulation would be achieved and the method is cost eective.
The pipes to be protected must be tied together closely with heating cable. Further,
the heating cable must be secured with aluminium tape, which acts also as a reector
Nomenclature
A sum of investment and operating energy cost per year ($)
A
1
cost of insulation material per unit volume ($/m
3
)
A
2
total cost of heating cable used for per metre of tube ($)
A
min
minimum engineering cost per year with the optimum thermal layer ($)
A
r
operating energy cost ($)
B cost of electricity ($/kWh)
D
1
outer diameter of tube (m)
D
2
outer diameter of insulation envelope (m)
i
1
interest rate (dimensionless)
i
2
electricity price increase rate (dimensionless)
i
e
eective discount-rate (dimensionless)
L thermal power of heating cable (W/m)
n lifetime (years)
N apportionment rate of investment per year (dimensionless)
P cost of heating cable ($/m)
q
0
design heat-loss rate of tube wall (W/m)
q
1
actual heat-loss rate from the tube wall (W/m)
Q heat-loss quantity (J)
R thermal resistance (m
2
K/W)
t
1
tube outside wall temperature (C)
t
2
air temperature near the insulation envelope (C)
t
20
insulation material outside temperature for designing heating cable (C)
Greek symbols
a
2
convective heat-transfer coecient of insulations outside surface
(W/m
2
C)
d thickness of the insulation envelope (m)
k thermal conductivity (W/mK)
s time period (h)
24 Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
and avoids direct contact of the insulation with the heating cable. Otherwise,
overheating might result.
In contrast to thermal insulation for steampipes, building envelopes, and refrig-
eration pipeworks, not only insulation material is used in this protection method.
Heating cables are used as well for heating up the tube walls by electricity. Therefore,
the corresponding thickness of insulation should be worked out. Additional insu-
lation beyond a specic thickness of insulation will not be cost-eective. In the lit-
erature, there have been studies on the optimum insulation thickness for
refrigeration applications [4] and for buildings, e.g. [5]. The thermo-economically
predicted optimum insulation-thickness for the seasonal heating mode of heating,
ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems has been reported [68]. Although
there are some recommendations for estimating insulation thickness, several are not
appropriate for this freeze protection method because operating the heating cable in
cold climates would consume electricity.
The present study aims to optimize the selection of insulation thickness for this
method in protecting pipes against freezing. An interactive code is developed to
access the eects of dierent design parameters on estimating the optimum insulation
thickness.
2. Mathematical model
This freeze-protection method will be formulated by considering both the initial
cost (capital investment) and the operating (energy) cost of insulation. Since the tube
length is much longer than its thickness, conduction heat transfer along the longi-
tudinal direction of the pipe can be neglected. The heat loss from the tube wall to the
outside atmosphere through the insulation envelope is simplied as a radial steady
conduction problem. The heat-loss rate from the tube wall per unit length (m) to the
atmosphere, q
1
(in Wm
1
), can be calculated from
q
1

t
1
t
2

1
2pk
ln
D
2
D
1

1
pD
2
a
2

Dt
1
R
t
; 1
where D
1
is the outer diameter of the tube wall; D
2
is the outer diameter of the in-
sulation envelope; k is the thermal conductivity of the insulation material; t
1
is the
design temperature of the tube wall; t
2
is the temperature of the outside air near the
insulation envelope; Dt
1
is the dierence between t
1
and t
2
; R
t
is total thermal re-
sistance, which is equal to the sum of the surface resistance for convective heat-
transfer over the outside surface of the insulation material and internal resistance of
the thermal insulation layer; and a
2
is the convective heat-transfer coecient for the
outside surface of the insulated material.
An empirical formula in designing thermal insulation [2] can be used to estimate
the convective heat-transfer coecient a
2
in terms of the wind speed U of the en-
vironment as
a
2
11:73

U
p
2
Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333 25
The insulation envelope thickness d can be calculated by
d D
2
D
1
=2:0 3
The capital investment and operating cost will be considered as follows.
2.1. Initial capital-investment
The initial capital investment per metre of the tube, A
i
, is calculated by the fol-
lowing equation:
A
i
A
1
pD
2
2
D
2
1
=4 A
2
; 4
where A
1
is the cost of the insulation material, A
2
is the cost of the heating cable used
per metre of the tube, as calculated by
A
2
q
0
P
L
_ _

t
1
t
20
1
2pk
ln
D
2
D
1
P
L
_ _
; 5
where t
20
is the outside surface temperature of the insulation material, L is the
heating power of the heating cable in W/m, and P is the price of heating cable in $/m.
To be safe, t
20
is often taken to be the value of the lowest temperature; or the value
close to the lowest temperature in the weather record of the cold region when de-
signing the heating cable length for the pipe. In this paper, the fee for manual work
and other kinds of investment are not considered.
2.2. Operating energy cost
As electricity will be consumed during operation, the operating energy cost is
related to the design power of the heating cable and tube-walls design temperature,
t
1
. A simplied approach is often adopted in practice by keeping the tube wall at the
design temperature using the heating cable in the cold climate. The energy con-
sumption is equal to the total heat-loss from the tube wall at the temperature t
1
. The
energy cost is equal to the total amount of electrical-energy consumption multiplied
by the electricity price. As a result, the operating energy cost per unit length of the
tube A
r
can be calculated by
A
r

Bst
1
t
2
10
3
1
2pk
ln
D
2
D
1

1
pD
2
a
2
; 6
where B is the cost of electricity with a unit of $/(kWh), and s is the number of
operating hours of the heating cable.
A freeze-protection system is generally designed to meet the maximum instanta-
neous heat-loss under a design peak temperature in a cold climate. Therefore, the
total number of hours of operating the heating cables should be calculated for es-
timating the energy use. In practice, the average outdoor temperature in the heating
season is often used for estimating the total heat-loss from the tube. In this way, the
time period of the heating season can be taken as the number of operating hours. For
26 Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
example, the heating season in Beijing is from December to March, i.e. about a 3000 h
heating period. In this paper, t
2
and wind speed U are taken as their average values in
the total heating-season.
2.3. Total capital-investment
The total capital investment per unit length of pipework is equal to the investment
and operating energy cost in the life-cycle period in which money is spent. Economic
assessment is performed by using a life-cycle cost (LCC) method during each period
of time. If the ination rate is not considered, the apportionment rate of capital
investment per year, N, can be calculated by
N
i
e
1 i
e

n
1 i
e

n
1
; 7
where n is the lifetime and i
e
is the eective discount rate given in terms of the interest
rate i
1
and the increase rate of electricity price i
2
by
i
e

i
1
1
i
2
1
1 7a
The following assumptions have been made in the economic analysis. The increasing
rate of electricity price is not considered, i.e. i
2
0. As a result, the eective discount
rate is equal to the interest rate. The interest rate is set at a xed value of 0.05 during
the lifetime.
The total investment and energy costs per year, A, can be calculated by
A NA
1
pD
2
2
D
2
1
=4 A
2
A
r
: 8
The optimum insulation-thickness is obtained by minimizing the total cost A,
achieved by setting the derivative of A with respective to the insulation thickness d,
oA=od, to zero. Since the outside tube wall temperature, D
1
, is known, the derivative
of cost A with respective to the thickness d can be written as
oA
od

oA
oD
2
_
oD
2
od
; 9
where the term oD
2
=od can be obtained from Eq. (3), and oA=oD
2
can be deduced
from Eq. (8).
Then, the following equation can be obtained by using Eqs. (3), (8) and (9):
D
2
2
ln
D
2
D
1

k
a
2
10

3
2

BsDt
2
N
_
D
2
A
1
LD
2
ln
D
2
D
1
_ _
2
4PkDt
1

1
2k
D
2
a
2

_
ln
D
2
D
1
:
10
The outer diameter of the insulated envelope, D
2
, can be obtained by the above
equation: Dt
2
is the temperature dierence between t
1
and t
20
. Then, the optimum
insulation-thickness can be calculated.
Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333 27
It is observed from Eq. (5) that the heating cable length (i.e. design heating-power)
is related to the insulation material-thickness. Therefore, a value of the insulation
thickness should be assumed rst, then the cost of the heating cable can be calcu-
lated. After that, the total capital-investment for this freeze protection can be de-
termined. An optimum insulation-thickness can be calculated by Eq. (10) and
compared with the initially assumed insulation-thickness. This trial-and-error or
iterative procedure is continued until the thickness calculated by Eq. (10) is equal to
the assumed insulation thickness.
Since the thermal conductivity of the insulation material is small, the term

1 2k=D
2
a
2

_
in Eq. (10) is close to unity. Taking this term as unity, then Eq. (10)
becomes
D
2
2
ln
D
2
D
1

k
a
2
10

3
2

BsDt
2
N
_
D
2
A
1
LD
2
ln
D
2
D
1
_ _
2
4PkDt
1

_
_
ln
D
2
D
1
11
Multiplying terms on both sides of Eq. (11) by 1=pD
2
k, the result on the left side is
equal to the thermal resistance of the tube wall, R
t
, in Eq. (1). Substituting this term
into Eq. (7), the heat loss per year when the optimum insulation-thickness is adopted
can be calculated by
Q 10

3
2
pD
2
k

sDt
2
N
B
_

A
1
L ln
D
2
D
1
_ _
2
4PkDt
1
D
2

_
ln
D
2
D
1
12
Then, the minimum cost for engineering per year A
min
is expressed by
A
min
10

3
2
pD
2
k

NBsDt
2
_

A
1
L ln
D
2
D
1
_ _
2
4PkDt
1
D
2

_
ln
D
2
D
1
A
i
N 13
To reduce the cost per year, the term A
1
LlnD
2
=D
1

2
4PkDt
1
should be as small as
possible. At the same time, the thermal conductivity cost A
1
=k should be greater than
4Dt
1
P=lnD
2
=D
1

2
L. If other factors have been determined, the thermal conduc-
tivity cost of the insulation material A
1
=k and heating cable cost P=L should be
considered comprehensively in order to reduce the engineering cost.
Although the optimum insulation-thickness can be calculated accurately by
Eq. (10), the following should be considered in practice:-
The thickness of the insulation envelope should be in accordance with the avail-
able thickness of the insulation material. At the same time, the thickness should be
close to the optimum thickness.
In the freeze protection of the piping system used for supplying drinking water,
dew condensation in summer should also be considered.
If the design heating cable length (q
0
=P) calculated by Eq. (10) is less than the tube
length, the heating cable length in practice should be the same as the tube length.
The total cost can be calculated by Eqs. (6)(8), when the insulation thickness is
not the optimum insulation-thickness.
28 Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
3. An example
A piping system for re ghting in Beijing is taken as an example to demonstrate
the above model. A minimum temperature of 4 C should be maintained in the
heating season, and so the design tube wall temperature is set at 4 C. The outside
surface temperature of thermal insulation material, t
20
, is taken as )26 C, which is
close to the lowest recorded temperature ()26.5 C) in Beijing. Values of other pa-
rameters used in this study are: lifetime n of 10 years; unit cost B of electricity of 0.04
$/(kWh); the interest rate i
1
is 5%; and electricity price increase rate, i
2
is zero. The
insulation material is berglass-urethane and so the thermal conductivity k is 0.024
W/(mC). The cost of urethane per unit volume, A
1
, is 121.9 $ /m
3
. The cost of
heating cable, P, is about 4.0 $/m; thermal power of the heating cable, L, is 8.0 W/m;
average outdoor-air temperature, t
2
, is )10 C; and the mean wind-speed, U, is 4.8 m/s.
For a tube with outer diameter D
1
of 0.026 m, the optimum outer diameter of the
insulation envelope, D
2
is calculated as 0.070 m; and the optimum thickness, d
opt
, is
0.022 m. According to the insulation material size series, the insulation thickness
should be taken as 0.02 m in practice. The heating power should be designed by
Eq. (5) and the operating cost could be estimated by Eq. (6) according to the real
insulation thickness. The predicted results would provide key reference data in
designing this heating and insulation freeze-protection method.
4. Results
For a tube with an outer diameter of 0.1 m, the insulation cost, cost of energy and
total cost are plotted against the insulation thickness in Fig. 1. The lifetime is 10
years and the outside air temperature is )10 C. It is observed that the total cost has
a local minimum for this specic problem when the insulation thickness is 0.0502 m.
This gives the optimal insulation thickness: values higher or smaller than that will
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
insulation material cost
heating cable cost
operating energy cost
total cost
Insulation thickness (mm)
C
o
s
t

p
e
r

m
e
t
r
e

l
e
n
g
t
h

o
f

t
h
e

t
u
b
e

(
$
)
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
Fig. 1. Eect of insulation thickness on the cost.
Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333 29
not be cost-eective. The insulation thickness should be designed as close to this
value as possible.
The optimum insulation-thicknesses for two dierent climate conditions of t
2
, at
)10 and )20 C, for dierent outer tube diameters are shown in Fig. 2. It is observed
that decreasing the environment temperature would require a larger optimum in-
sulation thickness for the same tube. This is because the heat loss and operating
energy cost would be higher for a lower air-temperature. To reduce the operating
cost throughout the lifetime, a thicker insulation envelope should be used. However,
the environmental eect is not signicant as there will only be slight changes of the
optimum thickness in decreasing the temperature from )10 to )20 C.
The eect of outside temperature t
20
of the insulation envelope on the optimum
insulation-thickness is shown in Fig. 3. The outside air temperature t
2
is )10 C and
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
t
2
= -10
o
C
t
2
= -20
o
C
O
p
t
i
m
u
m

i
n
s
u
l
a
t
i
o
n

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

(
m
m
)
Outer tube diameter (mm)
t
2
= -10
o
C
t
2
= -20
o
C
Fig. 2. Eect of the outside-air temperature on the optimum insulation-thickness.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
t
20
= - 26
o
C
t
20
= - 16
o
C
O
p
t
i
m
u
m

i
n
s
u
l
a
t
i
o
n

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

(
m
m
)
Outer tube diameter (mm)
t
20
= -26
o
C
t
20
= -16
o
C
Fig. 3. Eect of the design outside-air temperature on the optimum insulation-thickness.
30 Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
the lifetime is 10 years. A bigger optimum insulation-thickness is required for a lower
outside design-temperature of the insulation envelope. The insulation envelopes
outside design-temperature would have more inuence on the optimum thickness
than the outside environment temperature.
The optimum insulation-thicknesses for dierent tube diameters for design life-
times of 5 and 10 years are shown in Fig. 4. The outside air temperature is )10 C
and other conditions are the same as in above study. It can be found that, for the
same prices of insulation material and heating cable, the longer the lifetime, the
larger the optimum thickness for the same tube size.
The eect of thermal conductivity cost A
1
=k (in $mC/W/m
3
) on the optimum
thickness for the tube with an outer diameter of 0.1 m is shown in Fig. 5. There, the
lifetime is 10 years and the air temperature is )10 C. It is observed that the optimum
insulation-thickness decreases when the thermal-conductivity cost rises.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
n = 10 years
n = 5 years
Outer tube diameter (mm)
O
p
t
i
m
u
m

i
n
s
u
l
a
t
i
o
n

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

(
m
m
)
n = 5 years
n = 10 years
Fig. 4. Eect of lifetime on the optimum insulation-thickness.
0.0
3.0x10
3
6.0x10
3
9.0x10
3
1.2x10
4
1.5x10
4
1.8x10
4
35
40
45
50
55
60
O
p
t
i
m
u
m

i
n
s
u
l
a
t
i
o
n

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

(
m
m
)
Thermal conductive cost ($m
o
C/W/m
3
)
Fig. 5. Eect of thermal conductivity cost on the optimum insulation-thickness.
Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333 31
A common practice in China for electrical heating systems is to select a typical
thermal layer thickness rst. The value usually lies between 10 and 50 mm, de-
pending on the tubes diameter. With an agreed temperature-dierence between the
tube and outside environment, the heat-loss to be compensated by electrical heating
can be calculated. The required heating-cable length can then be determined.
However, the optimum design for reducing the operating cost and investment have
not as yet been considered.
With the increasing use of electrical heating systems in China, it is worthwhile to
consider designing freeze-protection by this new method of cost analysis. In fact, the
model equation given by Eq. (10) has been used for a terminal station of the Beijing
subway system in 2000 [9].
5. Conclusion
Cost analyses for dierent designs is important, especially for this insulation and
heating freeze protection method. The optimum insulation-thickness can be deter-
mined fairly accurately by Eq. (10). The present optimization technique leads to a
general formula which may be used to determine the optimum insulation-thickness
for dierent economic parameters, insulation materials and climate conditions. It is
clear that neither excessive nor decient insulation is not economically desirable.
Excessive insulation would give lower life-cycle energy cost, but requires large capital
investment. On the other hand, the capital investment is lower if not so well insu-
lated. But the life cycle energy cost is larger.
Eects of outdoor air conditions and design parameters on the optimum insula-
tion-thickness have been studied. The lower the outdoor-air temperature, the greater
the optimum insulation-thickness. For the same outside-air temperature, the opti-
mum insulation-thickness would become larger for lower design insulation envelope
outside-temperature. The longer the lifetime, the larger the optimum thickness. It is
also found that the optimum insulation thickness is inversely proportional to the
thermal conductivity and cost of the insulating material.
Predicted results of this study would provide useful reference data in engineering
practice.
As this is a simple model with a new approach combining heat transfer and cost
analysis, no existing models are available for comparison. There is no experimental
data for justifying the results yet. However, this approach has been used by a new
town developer at Beijing in a project involving piping network of lengths of 70 km.
Installation has just been completed. Preliminary estimation on the past year indi-
cates a saving of over RMB 5 million, in comparison with steam heating systems.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by the Scientic Research Foundation for Returned
Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, Peoples Republic of China.
32 Y.F. Li, W.K. Chow / Applied Energy 80 (2005) 2333
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