Experimental and Numerical Study of an Induction Resistive Heating System of Pipelines

Abstract

Extralong pipelines are heated by means of induction resistive systems are used, which are a short-circuited coaxial line. When calculating the heat generation power of such a system, it is necessary to take into account the surface effect and the proximity effect in the steel pipe, which lead to a significant increase in its electrical resistance. The total resistance of a steel pipe of an induction-resistive heating system (IRH) was determined by analytically solving a magnetodynamic problem. The verification of the methodology for determining power was carried out using physical and mathematical simulation of the operation of the IRH system at various current loads. For physical simulation, an experimental facility was installed, which is a section of the IRH system. During the tests, the current was recorded and the temperatures of the conductor, cable surface, pipe, and environment were measured. Transient thermal processes implemented at the facility are described by the differential equation of nonstationary thermal conductivity in a one-dimensional axisymmetric formulation. The volumetric power of heat release is determined using the proposed methodology. A comparative analysis of the temperature dependences obtained using physical and numerical experiments indicates a fairly good agreement between the results.