Air Water Vapor Mixtures: Psychrometrics Leon R. Glicksman c 1996, 2010 Introduction To establish proper comfort conditions within a building space, the designer must consider the air temperature and the amount of water vapor in the air. The latter is important because too high a level of water vapor can lead to uncomfortable feeling, sweat does not evaporate fast and people feel too wet and “clammy”. If the water vapor is too low, people suffer from dryness in their respiratory systems, skin dries out and is itchy and there can be a build up of static electricity, which can cause uncomfortable shocks to people and also disrupt electrical equipment. Evaporation of water into the air can serve to lower the air temperature. Cooling towers are used in conjunction with air conditioners to produce a higher COP. The condenser of the air conditioner is in contact with cooling tower water, which is at a lower temperature than the outside ambient air. We will need to define several new terms to deal with air-water vapor mixtures, sometimes referred to as psychrometrics. In addition, mass and energy balances will be established for both the air and the water. A graphical technique will be introduced which aids in visualizing the processes for the air-water vapor mixture. Mixtures When air and water vapor exist alone at moderate or low pressures, always the case for our conditions, they closely approximate ideal gases. In that case the relationship between pressure, temperature and mass can be expressed as, paV = n RT = m Ra Ta a (1) for the air and pvV = nv RT = m Ra Tv for the water vapor. In these equations, the subscript a refers to the air and v to the water vapor, n is the number of moles, m the mass, T the absolute temperature, in deg Kelvin or Rankine, R is the universal gas constant and Ra and Rv are the ratios of R to their respective molecular weights. At low pressure, if their and water vapor are mixed together the interaction between the molecules of the two gases is modest so that the mixture can be considered an ideal gas, (2) 1pV =(na+nv )RT (3) where p is the total pressure of the mixture. Adding equations 1 and 2 and comparing to equation 3 it can be seen that the total pressure in the mixture is just the sum of the pressure of each gas existing alone at the same temperature and in the same total volume, Dalton’s Law, p= pa+ pv (4) When the gases are mixed together pa and pv are referred to as the partial pressure of air and water vapor, respectively. The total enthalpy is the sum of the enthalpy of the air and water vapor, H=Ha+H =mh+mhv v (5)v aa Dividing the total enthalpy of the mixture by the mass of the air (note, this is not the total mixture mass), we obtain the enthalpy of the mixture per unit mass of dry air which will be written as h without any subscript, H m( )=m(h)=mh+mh (6)a a a a v v ma Although this seems an odd choice just now, it will become evident why this is a convenient choice. Dividing equation 6 by the mass of the air in the mixture, §¨¨ mv · ¸¹¸ hv =ha+h=ha+ ω (7) hv © ma Note the new enthalpy of the mixture we just defined, h, is the sum of the specific enthalpy of the air and the product of the specific enthalpy of the water vapor and the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the mass of air in the mixture. The air mass is sometimes called dry air to remind the reader that only the air without the water vapor mass is being considered. Note, be careful when you use h since different tables can use different states for the zero values of hv and ha which are added together to get h of the mixture. Humidity ratio or Specific Humidity The ratio of mass of water vapor to mass of air in a mixture is referred to as the specific humidity or the humidity ratio with the symbol ω (no this is not the humidity the goofy weathermen are reporting). The advantage in dealing with the specific humidity is that if the amount of water vapor in the air remains unchanged, the specific humidity remains constant. The specific humidity is expressed in grams of moisture (water vapor) per kilogram of dry air. Alternatively it is given as lbsv /lbsa or grains of water vapor per pound of dry air where 7000 grains is one 2pound mass. The internal energy of the mixture can also be defined in a similar form as the enthalpy, §¨¨ mv · ¸¹¸ uv =ua+ u=ua+ ω (8) uv © ma but since we will be considering open systems in steady state, we won’t spend much time on this. Alternate definitions of humidity Specific humidity we defined above will be useful in writing energy balances and the like but it does not give a good feel for the degree of moisture in the air. For that there is the relative humidity, ij. For ideal gases, this is the ratio of the partial pressure of the water vapor in the mixture, pv, to the partial pressure of water vapor in a mixture saturated with water vapor at the same temperature, Ts φ = pv (9)ps The relationship of pv and ps can be best seen by referring to the saturation curve of water, Figure 1. Note: this curve only involves the water which is in the mixture, not the air. The state of the water vapor in the mixture is shown by the point v at temperature T and partial pressure pv. In general this state will be in the superheated vapor region, away from the saturation line. If additional water vapor is added to the mixture while maintaining temperature constant at T, the largest amount which the mixture could contain is given by point s on the saturation curve between liquid water and water vapor. If more water vapor beyond s is added, the additional water vapor would condense out since the excess vapor pressure would not be in equilibrium with liquid water at this temperature. 3The specific humidity and relative humidity can be related by (see for example, McQuiston and Parker) φ = ω pa (10)0.622 ps Note, ȫ must be expressed as kg water vapor/kg of dry air or lb water vapor/lb dry air in equ.10. Another term frequently used is the dew point temperature, Td . Td is found by cooling the mixture of air and water vapor, at constant total pressure, until liquid water just begins to condense. The temperature at which condensation first occurs is the dew point temperature. It is also shown on Figure 1. Note that in this case the cooling of the mixture takes place without adding or subtracting any water vapor from the air, i.e., at a constant specific humidity. When the relative humidity is high, near 100%,