Study of temperature decreasing at hot fluid along vertical pipe using empirical formula and experimental verification

The role of piping systems in industry is very important for the distribution of hot fluid. Temperature drop due to heat loss needs to be minimized using thermal insulation layer. The heat loss is caused by heat transfer flow from the hot fluid to the surrounding. The empirical equations for natural heat convection from cylindrical pipe has been introduced. However, those empirical equations are only for constant temperature along the surface. In this study, the method to estimate the temperature profile of the hot fluid along vertical pipe is developed using empirical equation and simple numerical. The copper pipe with 0.5 inch diameter and 1 m length is used to flow the hot water at three different inlet temperature, i.e. 40 °C, 50 °C, and 60 °C. the estimation is also calculated for various of insulation layer thickness at 0.5 cm to 1.5 cm.