Heat Balance Characteristics of a Pressure Vessel

The study of heat balance in a pressure vessel is an important research area for energy conservation. In the present study, experiments are conducted to measure the heat input, heat energy utilized and heat loss for different volumes of water filled in a pressure vessel. Experiments are conducted on a pressure vessel of volume 0.008 m³ (8 I) filled with 1, 2, 3 and 3.7 kg of water at 12.5%, 25%, 37.5% and 46% of its capacity respectively. Two approaches are adopted to determine the optimum condition of the pressure vessel. In the first approach, the pressure vessel is insulated and in the other approach it is non-insulated. For both cases, vessels of similar capacity, make and design are used. Outer surface of the vessel is insulated with asbestos rope, clay and cow-dung bindings. There is not much difference in heat input and heat utilization for insulated and non-insulated vessels when the water level is only about 12.5% volume. In other cases, the insulated vessel consumes more heat input than the non-insulated vessel. When the non-insulated pressure vessel is filled with 46% of its volume by water, it utilizes a maximum of 30% of total heat supplied. From the experimental results, polynomial equations are developed for the heat input (Q_i), heat utilized (Q_u) and heat loss (Q₁) in terms of mass of the water taken in the vessel under non-insulated and insulated conditions. The equations obtained are validated for different water levels in the same vessels with new sets of experiments.