Estimating steam flow through heat trace

[Squicken]

Hello, I've been trying to find a method of estimating the current steam flow through some of my heat trace. I have no flow metering at all, but I do know the inlet steam pressure/temperature. I know the size of the heat trace pipe, and how many of them there are. I'm working on a project to improve the system, but need to know the steam usage so I can make some budgetary calculations. This is a pretty old site, and we used to receive steam for "free", so there was never a reason to include flow meters on anything steam related. Does anyone have any advice for how I can proceed on making some estimations, with extremely limited information? I need to do this frequently around the site as we're budgeting some sustainability projects, but I'm just lost at this point.

For an example on one project, I'm looking at 16 heat trace lines. About 50 ft each, 1/2" schedule 40 pipe. My steam inlet is 160 psi, 350F. Each line has a trap at the end, going into our condensate header. Is there any way to estimate the flow through these pipes, or do I just have to get more info?

Thank you for any help.

 

[crshears]

for any specific tracer, place a bucket of known capacity beneath the steam trap drain, and divert the condensate from the trap outlet into the bucket.

Measure how long it takes for the bucket to fill, and the temperature of the condensate.

This will give you a quantity of water of specific enthalpy per unit time.

Using steam tables, reverse calculate the energy content of the supplied steam.

Rinse and repeat as required.

 

[pierreick]

Hi,
To perform some calculation.
A good tool to support your work and investigation (infrared thermometer).
Pierre

 

[shvet]

What are process flow conditions?
For the stagnant flow the steam consumption can be assumed equal to heat loss, e.g.

Calculator: Condensate Load From Radiant Heat Loss in Piping (saturated steam only) | TLV - A Steam Specialist Company (Worldwide)

Online calculator to quickly determine Condensate Load From Radiant Heat Loss in Piping. Includes 53 different calculations. Equations displayed for easy reference.

toolbox.tlv.com

 

[goutam_freelance]

If you have pipe diameter and thickness, insulation material and thickness, heating steam parameters, process heat load(if any), etc., the steam consumption can be calculated easily.