Experimental investigation on the effects of heat transfer using vacuum and fiberglass insulations over pipes for industrial application

This research investigated the effects of heat transfer using vacuum insulation over a pipe for industrial application compared to fiberglass insulation for steel pipe. In this study, an experiment was conducted at various steam temperature. The experimental test was performed with 1 m length and 80 mm diameter of steel pipe at 27 ^∘C temperature and 1 atm pressure working condition. The vacuum space created by single stage vacuum pump was having an ultimate vacuum pressure of 0.05 mbar. The performance of vacuum and fiberglass insulation had been studied. The basic concept of thermodynamics and heat transfer equations were applied to explain the experimental results. From the results, the performance of vacuum insulation was higher than fiberglass insulation. The cost of fiberglass insulation material was 0.05 US dollars per unit length and the vacuum insulation material was 0.34 US dollars per unit length 80 mm pipe diameter. The heat loss cost of fiber was 156.54 US dollars/yr per unit length and the vacuum insulation was 4.08 US dollars/yr per unit length. The net saving cost from vacuum insulation was 152.46 US dollars/yr per unit length of pipe. In general, the report on the performance of vacuum insulation was higher than fiberglass insulation in efficiency, cost, and environmental aspect for industrial application of pipes system.