Investigation of the Structure Design and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Heating Cable

Indoor heating with an electrical heating cable, which has no harmful emissions to the environment, is an attractive way for radiant floor heating. To improve the heat transfer efficiency, a novel structure of the heating cable was designed by proposing the concept of the aluminum finned sheath. The transient heat transfer model from the embedded heating cables to the floor is established to validate the feasibility of this novel cable. The effects of the fin number and shape on the cable's temperature and heat flux distribution were analyzed. The results show that, with the specific volume of the sheath, increasing the number of fins can enhance the thermal diffusion capacity of the heating cable and reduce its temperature. Rectangular fins exhibit higher performance for heat dissipation than triangular fins due to their larger surface area. The simulation result shows that the floor temperature above the cable rises from 5 degrees C to 22.5 degrees C after a 2-h heating process, which was validated with experimental results. The results and suggestions can provide reference to guide the design of the heating cable.