Mechanical Insulation Design Guide – Introduction

by the National Mechanical Insulation Committee (NMIC)

Last updated: 09-15-2010

Introduction
The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and the National Insulation Association (NIA) has
developed this guide to mechanical insulation for commercial and industrial applications. It is intended to
be a comprehensive resource to assist specifiers and users of mechanical insulation in the design and
specification of mechanical insulation systems for a wide range of applications.

Background
Mechanical insulation, although important to facility operations and manufacturing processes is often
overlooked and undervalued. National standards, universal energy policies or generally accepted
recommendations as to what should be insulated, what insulation systems are acceptable for a specific use
and application best practices do not currently exist. As a result, the value of mechanical insulation is not
being realized to its potential in reducing our dependency on foreign energy sources, improving our
environment, improving our global competitiveness and providing a safer work environment.

Insulation is applied but rarely engineered. With the best intentions, but not necessarily with thorough
knowledge, many specifications have evolved over the years primarily based upon modification of old
documents. This practice combined with the lack of mechanical insulation educational and awareness
programs as to the value in having a properly engineered, installed and maintained mechanical insulation
system has led to the underutilization of mechanical insulation in energy conservation, emission
reduction, process and productivity improvement, life cycle cost reduction, personnel safety, life safety,
work place improvements and host of other applications.

In response, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) formed a Committee to bring together
major governmental agencies, private industry and organizations that are concerned with the design,
installation and maintenance of mechanical insulation. This committee, referred to as the National
Mechanical Insulation Committee (NMIC) offers the opportunity for a constructive public and private
partnership in the examination of mechanical insulation practices, the development of recommendations,
and the promotion of education regarding the merits and value of mechanical insulation.

Mechanical Insulation Market Definitions

MECHANICAL INSULATION is defined to encompass all thermal, acoustical and personnel safety
requirements in:

a. Mechanical piping and equipment, hot and cold, applications

b. Heating, Venting & Air Conditioning (HVAC) applications
c. Refrigeration and other low temperature piping and equipment applications

Mechanical insulation in the BUILDING SECTOR is defined to include education, health care,
institutional, retail and wholesale, office, food processing, light manufacturing and similar type
applications. This Sector is often referred to as the Commercial Sector.

Mechanical insulation in the INDUSTRIAL SECTOR is defined to include power, petrochemical,

chemical, pulp & paper, refining, gas processing, brewery, heavy manufacturing and similar type
applications.
Scope of the Design Guide

The scope of this design guide includes the design, specification, installation, and maintenance of
insulation systems for use within the markets defined above. Specialized insulated air handling products
(flex-duct and duct board products) are not considered to be mechanical insulation industry from the
perspective of this guide and accordingly are not addressed.

MIDG is part of the NIBS Whole Building Design Guide . The Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG)
is an evolving web-based resource intended to provide architects, engineers, facility managers, project
managers etc. with design guidance, criteria and technology for "whole buildings". The WBDG is
continually augmented with updated and new information and is structured as a "vertical portal", enabling
users to access increasingly specific information as they navigate deeper into the site. The Mechanical
Insulation Design Guide has been developed within the same principles as the WBDG.

Using the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide

As the name implies, the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide is primarily intended to assist designers,
specifiers, facility owners and users of mechanical insulation systems. The engineering design process is
generally divided into a number of phases along these lines:

1. Identify the need or define the problem

2. Gather pertinent information
3. Identify possible solutions
4. Analyze and select a solution
5. Communicate the solution

For an insulation design project, these phases could be expanded and restated as follows:

1. Identify the design objectives (Why insulate?)

2. Identify what is to be insulated (What?)
3. Identify the location and appropriate ambient design conditions (Where?)
4. Identify the materials and systems available (How?)
5. Analyze and determine the acceptable solutions (How To? and How Much?)
6. Write the specification
For insulation, the design process boils down to developing answers to six basic questions:

Why?, What?, Where?, How?, How To? and How Much?

Example problems which illustrate the insulation design process, as well as the use of the
Mechanical Insulation Design Guide.

The Mechanical Insulation Design Guide is organized to help develop these answers. The guide is divided
into five sections as follows:

1. Design Objectives (Why, What, and Where)

This section is aimed at first answering the question Why? It includes a discussion of each of the
potential design objectives for mechanical insulation systems. It also contains a discussion of
some of the design considerations (What and Where?) that must be addressed when designing or
selecting an insulation system. An insulation system can be designed for specific objectives like
energy conservation or condensation control or multiple objectives. To select the right insulation
system you need to evaluate the objective(s) for the finished system.
2. Material and Systems (How)
In most cases there are multiple types of mechanical insulation materials from which to choose
from for any given application. The section discusses each of the respective material categories
and provides resource information to testing methods and linkage to manufacturers of the various
materials.

The National Insulation Association (NIA) is the only trade organization focused upon
representing the mechanical insulation industry. NIA has provided NIBS and the MIDG direct
linkage access to their online library of technical literature,and as such is continually updated and
maintaining the catalog. This direct linkage saves time in obtaining manufacturer information on
their respective materials verses having to individually search a host of web sites. The majority of
the mechanical insulation manufacturers participating in the United States markets are
represented in the catalog.
3. Installation (How To)
The section provides best practice information related to various mechanical insulation
applications and provides a variety of field—job site working conditions that need to be
considered during the installation period. Both new construction and maintenance applications are
discussed.

4. Design Data (How Much)

This section provides various useful equations, data and design examples. These data are intended
to assist with analysis of insulation systems. The section also includes discussion and links to
available software tools for use in analysis of mechanical insulation problems.
5. Resources
The section contains a listing and contact information for the various resources utilized in the
development of this guide and for additional resource requirements.
Example Design Problems
The following examples are intended to illustrate the insulation system design process as well as the use
of the Mechanical Insulation Design Guide.

Example 1

A light manufacturing facility near Midway Airport in Chicago is expanding. 150 psig steam will be
required for several of the new processes, and multiple natural gas fired boilers will be installed to
provide the required steam. These boilers will also serve as the energy source for space heating in the
plant and in the adjacent office area. The new boilers will be located in an existing boiler house remote to
the main plant. The main steam line is a NPS 8 steel and will be located in overhead pipe racks adjacent
to a pedestrian walkway. Total length of the outdoor run is 150 ft. The task is to design the insulation
system for the NPS 8 line.

Step 1 Identify the design objective (Why).

Design objectives and considerations are discussed in Design Objectives section of the MIDG. After
reviewing this section, it is determined that this project has multiple design objectives. First, operating
costs are a concern as the energy costs are expected to be a significant portion of the unit costs of the
manufactured product. In addition, the overhead pipe rack will include a pedestrian walkway. Personnel
protection will therefore be important. Abuse resistance will be a design consideration due to the
proximity of the steam line to the pedestrian walkway.

Step 2 Identify what is to be insulated (What)

The main piping run will be steel piping and will be oriented primarily horizontally. The steam pressure
in this line will be controlled to a set point of 150 psig. The temperature of this saturated steam will be
366 °F.

Step 3 Identify the location and appropriate ambient conditions (Where)

The 8 NPS steel piping runs outdoors between the boiler house and the main plant. After reviewing the
Resources section of the MIDG, we recognize that design weather data for the Chicago is available from
the ASHRAE Handbook - Fundamentals. Annual average weather data is available via the National
Climatic Data Center website. For energy calculations, we will use the average annual temperature and
wind speed at Midway Airport (51 °F and 10 mph). For personnel protection, we will use the ASHRAE
0.4% summer design temperature of 92.3 °F and 0 mph wind speed.

Step 4 Identify the materials and systems available (How)

Candidate insulation materials and systems are reviewed in the Materials and Systems Section. After
entering the operating temperature of 366 °F into the Performance Property Guide (Table 1), there are
seventeen available insulation materials that satisfy the operating temperature requirement of 366 °F.
Selecting the material types that pertain to pipe insulations, we identify the following candidate materials:

 Cellular Glass (ASTM C 552)

 Mineral Fiber Pipe (ASTM C 547 Type I Fiberglass)
 Mineral Fiber Pipe (ASTM C 547 Types II - V Mineral Wool)
 Polyimide (ASTM C 1482)
 Calcium Silicate (ASTM C 533)
 Expanded Perlite (ASTM C 610)

Referring again to Table 1, these insulation materials differ in several key properties (e.g. density, thermal
conductivity, and compressive resistance) but all would meet the thermal requirements for the project.

For jacketing/finishing systems, we note that the location is outdoors so weather protection is required.
We also note that abuse resistance is a consideration for the design for the piping located in the pipe rack.
Possible jacketing materials include metal, UV stabilized PVC jacket, synthetic rubber laminates, and
multi-ply laminates. Since low water vapor permeance is not a consideration for this project, we will
specify aluminum jacketing.

Step 5. Analyze and determine the acceptable solutions (How Much and How To)
After reviewing the Design Data section of the MIDG, we utilize the NAIMA 3E Plus computer program
to analyze the candidate systems to estimate the surface temperatures and heat losses. For these
calculations, we assume horizontal pipe and a jacket emittance of 0.1 (corresponding to weathered
aluminum). Starting with the personnel protection objective (with a max surface temperature criterion of
140 F) at the summer design condition of 92.3 °F and 0 mph wind speed, we calculate required
thicknesses for each of the candidate materials.

Thickness Required for Personnel Protection NPS 8 Piping

Material Thickness, in. Surface Temp. °F Heat Loss, Btu/(h·ft)

Cellular Glass 2-½ 135 130
Polyimide 2-½ 136 134
Fiberglass 2 133 114
Mineral Wool 2 132 109
Calcium Silicate 2-½ 133 122
Expanded Perlite 2-½ 137 141

Based on these results, we conclude that approximately 2 to 2-1/2 inches of insulation will be required to
keep the temperature of the outer surface of the insulation system at or below 140 °F.

The next step is to analyze the candidate insulation systems with respect to operating costs. Using the
Cost of Energy function in the 3E Plus program, and using the expected cost of natural gas of $10/MCF
with a boiler efficiency of 75%, we generate the following table:

Annual Cost of Lost Energy, $/ft/yr

Cellular Mineral Fiber Mineral Fiber Calcium Expanded

Thickness Polyimide
Glass (Fiberglass) (Mineral Wool) Silicate Perlite
Bare 394.70 394.70 394.70 394.70 394.70 394.70
1" 38.31 38.93 27.39 26.28 36.62 42.27
2" 22.20 22.44 15.63 15.01 21.33 24.83
3" 15.84 15.97 11.09 10.65 15.25 17.80
4" 12.97 13.07 9.06 8.70 12.50 14.61
5" 11.17 11.25 7.79 7.49 10.77 12.60
6" 9.93 9.99 6.92 6.65 9.58 11.22

Reviewing these data, it is apparent that there are significant cost savings available by going beyond the 2
to 2-½" thicknesses required for personnel protection. Using the default cost data from the Economic
Thickness section of 3E Plus, with a labor rate of $60/hr, a discount rate of 8% and an estimated life of 10
years, we determine that a thickness of 4" insulation (single layer) minimizes the life cycle cost of the
insulation system. This result, however, is dependent on the installed costs of the insulation material and
could vary from the default values.
At this point the designer should recognize that the operating cost estimates for several of the candidates
are sufficiently close to warrant additional analysis. Using the links in the Materials and Systems section,
he could reference product data sheets for specific insulations to refine the analysis. The additional design
consideration of abuse resistance may warrant the review of additional product properties (e.g.
compressive resistance). After this review, he could prepare the specification around several of the best
candidates and competitively bid the project.

Step 6. Write the specification

The final step is to communicate the design intent utilizing the specification (How To). The designer may
have access to one or more guide specifications.

Example 2

A standby diesel powered generator set is to be installed to provide backup power for a large hospital
complex. The generator set is located in an unconditioned but ventilated detached building on the hospital
grounds. Exhaust gases will be piped out of the building but will pass near high traffic walkways
accessible to maintenance personnel. The generator set will be run periodically for testing and
maintenance, but is designed to run continuously if needed. The exhaust gases are estimated to be about
1,000 F under full load conditions. Exhaust piping is NPS 12 steel.

Step 1. Identify the design objective (Why)

Design objective are discussed in Section 1. The design objective here is personnel protection. Since we
are dealing with exhaust gases ducted outside the building, energy conservation is not a concern. The
insulation system will be designed to keep the surface temperature below 140 F at worst case conditions.
Since the exhaust piping will be near a high traffic area, abuse resistance is a design consideration.

Step 2. Identify what is to be insulated (What)

The 12 NPS steel piping in the generator building and has both horizontal and vertical runs. The
temperature of the exhaust gases in this piping will vary depending on the load on the generator set. For
the purpose of this example, we will assume full load conditions (1,000 F).

Step 3 Identify the location and appropriate ambient conditions (Where)

The exhaust piping is located in the stand-alone generator building. This building is unconditioned during
the summer months. Ventilation in the form of exhaust fans is provided. The thermal conditions in the
generator building will vary with the outdoor weather and with internal loading.

For outdoor conditions, design weather data (ASHRAE Handbook—Fundamentals) shows four values for
the outdoor design dry-bulb temperature for Charlotte.

Design Cooling Temperatures for Charlotte, NC

Level Design Dry-bulb Temperature, F

Mean of Annual Extremes 97.0

0.4% 93.9
1% 91.5
2% 89.2
The 0.4%, 1%, and 2% levels represent the annual cumulative frequency of occurrence. In other words,
we could expect, based on the thirty-year weather record examined, that the outdoor dry-bulb temperature
would exceed the 1% level 1% of the time (i.e. 88 hours per year). The exhaust piping, however, is not
located outdoors. Conditions indoors may be warmer (particularly if the generator set is running at full
load). How much warmer is difficult to determine, but it seems prudent to select an indoor design
temperature of 95 F for this example.

Since this generator building would be ventilated during equipment operation, air movement around
potions of the exhaust piping could be significant. However, since this is a personnel protection design,
we will assume no air movement.

Step 4 Identify the materials and systems available (How)

Materials and systems are reviewed in Section 2. Referring to Table 1, there are three currently available
insulation products that satisfy the operating temperature of 1,000 F:

 Calcium Silicate Pipe (ASTM C 533, Type I)

 Mineral Fiber Pipe ( ASTM C 547, Types II-V)
 Expanded Perlite Pipe (ASTM C 610)

Referring again to Table 1, these insulation materials differ in several key properties (e.g. density, thermal
conductivity, and compressive resistance) but all three would meet the thermal and physical requirements
for the project.

For jacketing/finishing systems, we note that the location is indoors so weather protection is not required.
We also note that this is an above ambient application so a vapor retarder is not required. Referring to
Section 1, we note that personnel protection applications should utilize a high emittance surface to
minimize surface temperatures. We also note that abuse resistance is a consideration for this design. We
therefore identify painted metal as a candidate jacketing material.

Step 5 Analyze and determine acceptable solutions (How Much and How To)
Utilizing the NAIMA 3E Plus computer program, we analyze the three candidate systems to estimate the
surface temperatures assuming horizontal pipe.

Calculated Surface Temperatures of Three Insulation Options

Calcium Silicate Mineral Fiber Expanded Perlite

Thickness, in.
ASTM C 533-04 ASTM C 547-06 ASTM C 610-05

5 141.9 142.5 146.8

5–½ 137.7 138.3 142.3

6 134.3 134.8 138.5

Based on this analysis, we conclude that approximately 5 to 6 inches of insulation will be required. We
also note that the calculated surface temperatures are very similar, all falling within a range of about 5 F.
This again indicates that all three of these options would provide an acceptable solution. At this point the
designer could reference product data sheets for specific insulation products to refine the analysis.
Alternatively, he could prepare the specification around all three choices and competitively bid the
project.
Step 6 Write the specification.
The final step is to communicate the design intent utilizing the specification. The designer may have
access to one or more guide specifications