An Introduction to Heat Tracing.

Heat tracing is the generic term which refers to the application of heat to a pipeline or vessel to prevent freezing, to thaw frozen fluid, to maintain viscosity or temperature of a fluid, or for other reasons such as to keep components from separating or gas from condensing. The purpose of this digest is to summarize current heat tracing practices-their principles of operation, advantages and disadvantages. Heat tracing methods covered include heat transfer fluids glycols and heat process fluids, steam, and electricity resistance, skin effect, impedance and inductance. Author