The reduction of friction losses in district-heating pipelines

In the paper the impact of cationic surfactant additives on reducing the turbulence intensity in the hot-water pipelines of district hearing systems is presented. With small amounts of cationic surfactants in district-heating water the friction losses in pipelines can be reduced significantly. Because of this effect the pressure drops are decreased what leads to reductions in pump energy, pumping costs. costs of, gas for heating the supply water, hear losses and to an increase in the heat capacity. New. district-heating networks can be designed with smaller pipe diameters and so instrument costs can be reduced significantly by applying friction-reducing additives. (C) 2000 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.