District Heating Network Stress Analysis
A key part of our technical support services for the Hiline pre-insulated district heating pipe system range is advanced stress analysis service to ensure that a network’s design is optimised for the day-to-day thermal expansion that a system encounters during its many decades of operation.
When designing and installing district heating pipe networks, stress analysis is a critical part process and one which should be carried out by default. To illustrate the importance of stress analysis, something as simple as adding in an unplanned branch connection can seriously impair a system’s ability to cope with the huge forces exerted on the pipe from thermal expansion. To put it into context, a 200-metre length of buried DN250mm pre-insulated steel pipe, heated to an operating temperature of 120°C will expand by around 150mm – exerting stress of some 171MPa – the equivalent of 52 tonnes. This clearly needs to be dealt with in a way that does not impede the life expectancy of the network and ensure a long and trouble-free operation in delivering heating and hot water to consumers.