Psychrometry

• Atmospheric air makes up the environment in

almost every type of air conditioning system.
Hence a thorough understanding of the
properties of atmospheric air and the ability
to analyze various processes involving air is
fundamental to air conditioning design.

• Psychrometry is the study of the properties of

mixtures of air and water vapour.
• A mixture of various gases that constitute air and water vapour. This
mixture is known as moist air.
• The moist air can be thought of as a mixture of dry air and moisture. For
all practical purposes, the composition of dry air can be considered as
constant. In 1949, a standard composition of dry air was fixed by the
International Joint Committee on Psychrometric data.

Based on the above composition the molecular weight of dry air is found to be
28.966 and the gas constant R is 287.035 J/kg.K.
As mentioned before the air to be processed in air conditioning systems is a mixture
of dry air and water vapour. While the composition of dry air is constant, the amount
of water vapour present in the air may vary from zero to a maximum depending upon
the temperature and pressure of the mixture (dry air + water vapour).
• At a given temperature and
pressure the dry air can only hold a
certain maximum amount of
moisture. When the moisture
content is maximum, then the air is
known as saturated air, which is
established by a neutral
equilibrium between the moist air
and the liquid or solid phases of
water.
• For calculation purposes, the
molecular weight of water vapour
is taken as 18.015 and its gas
constant is 461.52 J/kg.K.
 Methods for estimating properties of
moist air
• In order to perform air conditioning calculations, it is essential first to estimate
various properties of air. It is difficult to estimate the exact property values of
moist air as it is a mixture of several permanent gases and water vapour. However,
moist air upto 3 atm. pressure is found to obey perfect gas law with accuracy
sufficient for engineering calculations.

Basic gas laws for moist air:

According to the Gibbs-Dalton law for a mixture of perfect gases, the total
pressure exerted by the mixture is equal to the sum of partial pressures of the
constituent gases. According to this law, for a homogeneous perfect gas mixture
occupying a volume V and at temperature T, each constituent gas behaves as
though the other gases are not present (i.e., there is no interaction between the
gases). Each gas obeys perfect gas equation. Hence, the partial pressures exerted
by each gas, p1,p2,p3 … and the total pressure pt are given by:
 Important psychometric properties:
• Dry bulb temperature (DBT) is the temperature of the moist air as measured by a standard
thermometer or other temperature measuring instruments.
• Saturated vapour pressure (psat) is the saturated partial pressure of water vapour at the dry
bulb temperature. This is readily available in thermodynamic tables and charts. ASHRAE
suggests the following regression equation for saturated vapour pressure of water, which is
valid for 0 to 100oC.

• Relative humidity (Φ) is defined as the ratio of the mole fraction of water vapour in moist air
to mole fraction of water vapour in saturated air at the same temperature and pressure.
Using perfect gas equation we can show that:
Psychometric chart
 Measurement of psychometric
properties:
• The thermodynamic state of moist air can be measured if the barometric
pressure and two other independent properties are known. This means that at a
given barometric pressure, the state of moist air can be determined by
measuring any two independent properties. One of them could be the dry-bulb
temperature (DBT), as the measurement of this temperature is fairly simple and
accurate.
• The accurate measurement of other independent parameters such as humidity
ratio is very difficult in practice. Since measurement of temperatures is easier, it
would be convenient if the other independent parameter is also a temperature.
this could be the dew-point temperature (DPT), but it is observed that accurate
measurement of dew-point temperature is difficult. In this context, a new
independent temperature parameter called the wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is
defined. Compared to DPT, it is easier to measure the wet-bulb temperature of
moist air.
• Thus knowing the dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures from measurements, it
is possible to find the other properties of moist air.
 Wet-bulb temperature
The straight line law
The straight line law states
that “when air is
transferring heat and mass
(water) to or from a
wetted surface, the
condition of air shown on a
psychometric
chart drives towards the
saturation line at the
temperature of the wetted
surface”.
 Wet bulb temperature:
• Adiabatic saturation temperature is defined as that temperature at which
water, by evaporating into air, can bring the air to saturation at the same
temperature adiabatically. An adiabatic saturator is a device using which
one can measure theoretically the adiabatic saturation temperature of air.
As shown in Fig above, an adiabatic saturator is a device in which air flows
through an infinitely long duct containing water. As the air comes in contact
with water in the duct, there will be heat and mass transfer between water
and air. If the duct is infinitely long, then at the exit, there would exist perfect
equilibrium between air and water at steady state. Air at the exit would be fully
saturated and its temperature is equal to that of water temperature. The
device is adiabatic as the walls of the chamber are thermally insulated. In order
to continue the process, makeup water has to be provided to compensate for
the amount of water evaporated into the air. The temperature of the make-up
water is controlled so that it is the same as that in the duct.
On the psychometric chart as shown in Fig,
point 1 lies below the line of constant enthalpy
that passes through the saturation point 2. t2 =
f(t1,W1) is not a unique function, in the sense
that there can be several combinations of t1
and W1 which can result in the same sump
temperature in the adiabatic saturator. A line
passing through all these points is a constant
wet bulb temperature line. Thus all inlet
conditions that result in the same sump
temperature, for example point 1’ have the
same wet bulb temperature. The line is a
straight line according to the straight-line law.
The straight-line joining 1 and 2 represents the
path of the air as it passes through the
adiabatic saturator.

Normally lines of constant wet bulb

temperature are shown on the psychometric
chart. The difference between actual enthalpy
and the enthalpy obtained by following
constant wet-bulb temperature is equal to
(w2-w1)hf.
In practice, it is not convenient to measure
the wet-bulb temperature using an
adiabatic saturator. In stead, a
thermometer with a wetted wick is used to
measure the wet bulb temperature as
shown in Fig. It can be observed that since
the area of the wet bulb is finite, the state
of air at the exit of the wet bulb will not be
saturated, in stead it will be point 2 on the
straight line joining 1 and i, provided the
temperature of water on the wet bulb is i. It
has been shown by Carrier, that this is a
valid assumption for air-water mixtures.
Hence for air-water mixtures, one can
assume that the temperature measured by
the wet-bulb thermometer is equal to the
thermodynamic wet-bulb temperature4.
For other gas-vapor mixtures, there can be
appreciable difference between the
thermodynamic and actual wet-bulb
temperatures.
 Psychrometer:
Any instrument capable of measuring the psychrometric state of
air is called a psychrometer. As mentioned before, in order to
measure the psychrometric state of air, it is required to measure
three independent parameters. Generally two of these are the
barometric pressure and air dry-bulb temperature as they can be
measured easily and with good accuracy.

Two types of psychrometers are commonly used. Each comprises

of two thermometers with the bulb of one covered by a moist
wick. The two sensing bulbs are separated and shaded from each
other so that the radiation heat transfer between them becomes
negligible. Radiation shields may have to be used over the bulbs
if the surrounding temperatures are considerably different from
the air temperature.