Heat Loss Characteristics of Pipe Flange Joints: Experiments and Simulations

Sealing performance and heat loss are important factors for pipe flange joints (PFJs) subjected to medium or high temperatures. Heat loss is of great interest in practical engineering for uninsulated PFJs. Since an insulation layer may degrade the sealing performance of PFJs, heat loss of PFJs was tested and simulated considering various ambient temperatures of −10 °C, 0 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C, 30 °C, and 40 °C, with wind speeds of 0 m/s and 3 m/s and flange joint target temperatures of 200 °C, 300 °C, and 400 °C. It is worth noting that the experiments were performed during summer for high ambient temperatures and during winter for low ambient temperatures. As expected, the steady temperature slightly increases with the increase of external ambient temperature. For the same flange joint temperature, a 3 m/s wind speed decreases significantly the steady temperature, especially when the higher target temperature is applied. If the external wind speed is 3 m/s and the flange joint target temperatures are 200 °C, 300 °C, and 400 °C, respectively, the heat loss increases by approximately 38.4%, 30.7% and 23.6% when the ambient temperature changes from 30 °C to 10 °C. Moreover, the simulated temperatures agree well with the tested temperatures in most cases, and the average error is approximately 8%. The energy saving efficiency under the windless condition is approximately on average 26% higher than that with a wind speed of 3 m/s.