Evaluation of vacuum insulation panels used in hybrid insulation district heating pipes
Other conference contribution, 2014

It is of interest to lower the energy losses from district heating pipes both for economic and environmental reasons. This paper evaluates a hybrid insulation solution where Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP) are put around the supply pipe in a district heating pipe and the rest of the casing pipe is filled with polyurethane foam (PUR). The apparatus for the “guarded hot pipe” method was used to estimate the thermal properties of single pipes, which have been used as input in finite element models for simulation of twin pipes in field. The simulations indicate a total reduction in the energy loss between 18% and 32% compared to pipes of the same size with pure PUR insulation. Furthermore, the losses from the supply pipe decrease by up to 56%. To achieve the low energy losses, the vacuum in the panels has to be preserved over the life span of the VIP. In field measurements, a hybrid pipe prototype was connected to the district heating grid in Varberg (southwest Sweden). After almost two years, the pipe is still working without any detectable deterioration of the insulation performance. The panels have also been tested at high temperatures in laboratory with promising results.

superinsulation

high performance

district heating pipes

vacuum insulation panels

VIP

Author

Axel Berge

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Technology

Bijan Adl-Zarrabi

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Technology

Proccedings of The 14th international symposium on district heating and cooling

454-461
978-91-85775-24-8 (ISBN)

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Building Futures (2010-2018)

Energy

Subject Categories

Infrastructure Engineering

ISBN

978-91-85775-24-8

More information

Created

10/6/2017