NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF HEAT LOSSES BY MAIN
HEAT PIPELINES UNDER CONDITIONS OF COMPLETE
OR PARTIAL FLOODING

G. V. Kuznetsov and V. Yu. Polovnikov

UDC 621.643.001:536.2

A two-dimensional problem of the nonstationary temperature 
field of a main heat pipeline and of its environment under conditions 
of complete or partial flooding has been solved numerically. At the 
boundary of the contact between the outer surface of the pipeline 
and water the presence of evaporation was taken into account. It has 
been revealed that under typical operating conditions of main heat-supply 
systems the flooding of the heat pipeline channel leads to a more 
than 5.5-fold increase in heat losses. It is shown that in order to 
estimate the heat losses one may use a one-dimensional model of the 
system considered. It has been established that for heat pipelines 
operating under conditions of flooding, the domain of solution of 
the problem can be bounded by the outer boundary of the pipeline.

Tomsk Polytechnic University, 30 Lenin Ave., Tomsk, 634050, 
Russia. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 81, No. 
2, pp. 303-311, March-April, 2008. Original article submitted 
July 7, 2006.