Tutorial steady state calculation page 1 Dr.

Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Tutorial steady state heat transfer calculation

This tutorial gives complete example of a steady state heat loss calculation. It describes step by
step how to enter, store and print the calculation of a four layer tube wall with an air gap.

Ambient conditions
Select geometric shape
Entering wall layers
Printing the results

Main dialog steady state calculation

When started, SIMU-THERM is in the module "steady state heat transfer". This dialog includes eve-
rything that is necessary to perform a steady state calculation: enter wall layers, ambient conditions,
comments, determine the geometric shape and trigger the calculation.

Dialog sections
1. entering text decriptions
2. determine geometric shape and orientation
3. ambient temperature inside
4. ambient temperature outside
5. heat transfer coefficient inside
6. heat transfer coefficient outside
7. layer thickness
8. layer material
9. additional layer information columns
Tutorial steady state calculation page 2 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Text descriptions of the calculation (section 1)

Click on the first line (Customer). Then you can enter a
short (50 character) description of the customer. The de-
scriptions entered here are part of the printouts.

Geometric base shape and diameter (section 2)

Assume that the outside diameter of the tube is 2000 mm (= 2 m º 6.6 ft). The inside diameter is
calculated depending of the lining thickness.
Select the based geometric shape (i.e. plane, tube or spherical):
Click on the switch button "Wall geometry", until "tube wall" appears.

Tube diameter: Click on the button "diameter" - the diameter

dialog pops up. Select "outside diameter", in order to define
the outside diameter of the tube wall as the fixed value. Please
enter 2000 mm in the input field as the (outside) diameter.
Select ‘vertical tube’ as tube orientation
In case of a tube wall two orientations are possible: 'vertical
tube' and 'horizontal tube'
In case of an even wall there three orientations:
'vertical wall', 'floor - heat flows down' and 'roof - heat flows up'

Ambient conditions (section 3 - 6)

"Ambient conditions" are data concerning the ambient media on both sides of the wall.
• the temperature of the liquid or gas in the tube, (e.g. combustion gas in a furnace)
• the temperature of the ambient air
• the heat transfer coefficients (HTC’s) inside and outside.
The temperature difference between the wall surface and the contacting liquid depends on the HTC.
A low HTC causes a large temperature difference and reverse. The heat transfer coefficients can be
calculated instead of entering them. In this case a calculation formula has to be chosen.
Inside temperature:
Assume a combustion gas temperature 1100 °C. Please enter '1100' in "Inside temperature °C"
Heat transfer coefficient inside:
Please enter '150' in the edit field " Heat transfer coefficient inside W/m2K "
This is a mean value, which can be assumed in furnaces containing radiant combustion gas in order
to calculate the small difference between gas temperature and surface temperature. Its initial value
is set in "options - calculation settings"
Outside temperature:
Assume an ambient air temperature 20 °C. Please enter '20' in "Outside temperature °C"
Tutorial steady state calculation page 3 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Heat transfer coefficient outside:

In our sample we want to calculate the outside heat
transfer coefficient automatically by a formula rather
than enter a value. To select this formula, please click
on the Button "calculated with …." - a small dialog for
the calculation of heat transfer coefficients pops up.

Select the calculation formula

First click on the button "select formula". You can
choose one from three calculation formulas. Please
select the formula "ASTM_04" by doubleclick. This
is the calculation according to the standard ASTM
680 C, release 2004. After selecting the formula the
edit

Please notice that the results of the 2004 release are quite different from the former releases. How-
ever it matches the results of the “VDI Wärmeatlas” (heat atlas of the German engineers associa-
tion) in the case of low wind velocity.
Please enter the following parameters of heat transfer into the four edit fields (like in the picture):
tube height 5 m
emission ratio 0.4 ( for steel surface)
wind velocity 0 m/s
irradiation 0 W/m2

Recommendations for choosing a calculation formula

• For wind velocity < 2 m/s we recommend to use ASTM_04 always.
• For higher velocity VDI_WA97 in most cases yields figures closer to reality, because this
formula it is developed for air flow around three dimensional solids. ASTM_04 is derived
from the theory of an ideal undisturbed flow, e.g. along flat plates. It always calculates the
HTC lowest possible under laboratory conditions. So ASTM_04 should be used when the
maximum surface temperature is to be guaranteed.
• ASTM_680 (releases < 2003) should not be used, unless it is requested in the warranty
clauses.
• Temperature warranty clauses for refractory plants should be based on 0 m/s wind velocity
(free convection). Especially wind velocities between 0.5 and 5.0 m/s should be avoided. In
that range there are large differences between the calculation formulas. Also the real surface
temperature cannot be predicted exactly, because it depends heavily of accidental distur-
bances of the initial air flow.
Tutorial steady state calculation page 4 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Input wall layers and select materials (section 7,8)

Our sample tube wall will consist of the following layers:
Layer 1: 200 mm HIGH_ALUMINA BRICK 65%"
Layer 2: 100 mm INSULATING_BRICK (800)
Layer 3: 60 mm ROCKWOOL (120)
Layer 4: 15 mm STEEL

Note: The order of the is always from inside to outside in the geometrical sense, i.e. from inside to
outside of the volume enclosed by the wall. This normally, but not necessarily from hot face to cold
face of the wall.

When doing these entries, we will demonstrate some of the search options which can help you to
find suitable materials.

Enter 200 mm in the edit table field below "mm" as the thickness of layer 1
Click into the table field below "Material", denoted with "click here ...."

The dialog to select of a material from the data-

base pops up. All available materials are listed,
because there is not yet a selection criterion.
Preselection by material name:
Assume that a high alumina material is needed in
the hot face layer. The most simple way to find
one might be to search for the character se-
quence "alum" in the material name.
Click on the switch button "name beginning with".
The button's text is changed to "name contains
characters" and the cursor is placed in the corre-
sponding field. Enter "alum" and click on "search"
(or press the RETURN key).
Now only the materials containing "alum" in their names are listed.
Please select the material "HIGH_ALUMINA_BRICK 65%" by a doubleclick on its line.

In the second layer we want to use an insulation brick with a density of at least 800 kg/m3 and a
thermal conductivity less than 0.3 W/mK at low temperatures.

Enter 100 mm as the thickness of layer 2

Click into the table field below "Material" in line 2 and remove the old search criteria with "Reset".
Please click on the upper button "new criterion".
Select "bulk density" as criterion and switch the
search direction to ">=" by clicking. Enter "800"
in the number edit field.
In order to fit the thermal conductivity also, click
on the lower button "new criterion" and choose
"minimal thermal conductivity". Enter "0.3" in the
in the number edit field.
When you start search now, you will obtain only a
few materials fulfilling both criteria. One of them is
the material "INSULATING_BRICK (800)".
Tutorial steady state calculation page 5 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Enter 60 mm as the thickness of layer 3

As the third layer we want a highly insulating

material with an application temperature
>= 700 °C. For this combination of criteria alter
the value of conductivity from 0.3 to 0.1 and
select "maximum application temperature" as
the first criterion, using 700 as numeric value.
Among the resulting set of suitable materials
you find " ROCKWOOL (120)"

Enter 15 mm as the thickness of layer 3

To select "STEEL" for the last layer, use the

option "recently selected". Then all other crite-
ria are suppressed an you see the 20 materials
last selected. (if the number of items is set to
be 20). If a limited number of materials is in-
volved in a project, the option "recently se-
lected" is the most convenient way to find a
suitable material.

Calculation:
When all data necessary for the steady state calcu-
lation are available, the pushbutton "calculate" is
active. A click on it starts the steady state calcula-
tion and displays the results.
When finished, the pushbutton "graphic" is active.
Clicking on it pops up an image showing the calcu-
lated temperature over the wall thickness. The
horizontal green lines indicate the maximum appli-
cation temperatures of the layer materials as found
in the database.

Heat loss information

Above the layer table there is an information box con-
cerning the heat loss. Clicking on it shows the heat loss
of the tube, plate or sphere, the heat loss through both of
the surfaces an the resulting U-value (related to outside
surface).
Tutorial steady state calculation page 6 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Inserting an air gap:

Now we will insert a 6 mm air gap between the insulation and the steel shell.
Insert a new layer as No. 4:
In order to insert another layer mark layer 4 by clicking once on it and click on the pushbutton "in-
sert" under the layer listbox. Now there should be 5 layers, with layer 4 duplicated.

First enter 10 mm as the new layer's thickness.

Then mark layer 4 again by and click on the pushbutton
"process" under the layer listbox. The wall layer proper-
ties dialog pops up (image 1). There select the option
"calculate as air gap (static air)". A dialog pops up (im-
age 2) asking for the emissivities of the boundary sur-
faces. The inner surface consists of rockwool with an
emissivity coefficient ε= 0.90, we estimate the emissivity
coefficient of the steel casing to ε= 0.30
Please enter: 0.90 in “emissivity inner surface” and
0.30 in “emissivity outer surface”

Finally we take into account an additional impact of spread out

steel spacers. To do that, we can use the field "conductivity of
heat bridges". Per m2 we assume 50 spacers with a cross
section of 10 mm2 each, and a thermal conductivity of
40 W/mK. The total cross section is 500 mm2/m2 =
0.0005 m2/ m2.The corresponding conductivity is
0.0005 * 40 = 0.02 W/mK.
Please enter the result 0.02 W/mK in the edit field. SIMU-
THERM will do the little calculation for you, if you click on the
button 'calc' placed right to the field 'heat bridges'. In the same
way heat bridges in an insulation can be taken into account.

Store and resume heat transfer files

A heat transfer calculation can be saved as a separate file 'name.ht1'. Saving and opening the files
is performed with the usual Windows mechanisms.
The text files generated by SIMU-THERM contain complete information to reproduce the calcula-
tion, including the material data. If you send these files to another SIMU-THERM user, the receiver
can open them without access to the material database. The receiver can also look at the data of
the used materials.
Tutorial steady state calculation page 7 Dr. Hilger & Daniel Software GmbH

Additional information columns (section 9)

In the two columns additional figures concerning the wall layers are displayed.
Clicking on the 'info' buttons switsches rotating between the possible contents. Sometimes the col-
umns cotent is set automatically, e.g. if service temperature is exceeded.
In the print form dialog can be determined whether the columns are printed.

At present the following figures can be chosen:

INFO 1 INFO 2
mean temperature mean temperature
thermal expansion thermal expansion
heat content (enthalpy) heat content (enthalpy)
weight of the layer (mass) weight of the layer (mass)
service temperature

Printing the results

Clicking on the button “print” starts printing the calculated results. Next you get the standard Win-
dows print dialog where you can determine some print settings. Unlike the former release 6.0 the
current release is using direct printing routines without involving Excel. The print layout is controlled
in special text files, called "print form".

In order to alter the print layout, please click on the

button “print form” before printing. Then you can
choose one from the languages English, French,
German, Italian, Spanish. Moreover you can deter-
mine whether the additional information columns
(shown in the S-T main dialog) are printed as well.
If you use self-made print forms with your own lay-
out, you also can choose one of the available print
forms. In the file “MANUAL_print_control.pdf” you
will find all information how to build own print forms
easily.

Printing with Excel

If you are using the interface to Microsoft’s spreadsheet software Excel, all calculation results are
transferred into a special Excel sheet and can then be printed in Excel. For details please see the
file “TUTORIAL_EXCELPRINT.pdf”