DOes anybody know how to claculate the heat loss from the buried sewer line? Should I account for convection heat loss through the gravel berm? Please help me!!!
Hi pkmac
in order to calculate heat loss from the sewer, you need to know the temperature of the surroundings. This is often taken as the local groundwater/air temperature. The convection heat loss will be considerably less than the free convection loss because the gravel locks up the water/air on the outside of the pipe.
In many cases, the result is insignificant when the sewer flow rate, inherent pipe insulation properties etc are taken into account.
However in certain circumstances such as CI sewers run in permafrost conditions, the result can be significant.
Perhaps if you described in more detail what it is that you are trying to achieve, then you may get a more useful reply.
