Psychrometry – Air & Water Vapor Systems

Problems involving air & water vapor, or air + water vapor + condensed liquid
water, have many practical applications including: humidification, air-conditioning
and cooling towers. These problems are analyzed with the following assumptions:

Moist Air – Moist air is treated as an ideal gas mixture of water vapor and dry air
(as a pure component). The subscript “a” refers to the dry air component, and the
subscript “v” refers to the water vapor. Since the components are considered to
exist at the mixture volume and temperature,

Na RT
Pa = =
V

Nv R T
Pv = =
V

Also, Pa = y a P , and Pv =

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 Mixture Descriptions and Humidity

To understand how humidity is determined, first consider the T-s diagram for
water below.

T   H2O only

s  

Saturated –

Humidity Ratio (specific humidity) , ω =

Relative Humidity, φ=

Dew Point Temperature – When a mixture is cooled at constant pressure, that

temperature at which the mixture becomes saturated is called the Dew Point
Temperature.

Relating the specific and relative humidites:

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 Mv
ω= =
Ma

Pv
!=
Pg

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 Example: Adiabatic Saturator

This example forms the basis for 1st Law Analysis of air and water vapor systems.
The actual device is used to determine the humidity of an unknown mixture of air
and water vapor.

Unknown
Humidity, Saturated
Air + H2O Mixture
vapor

Assume:

Conservation of Mass:

Air:

Water:

1st Law:

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Approximations & Substitutions:

ha3 − ha1 =

hv3 =

hw2 =

hw1 =

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Wet Bulb and Dry Bulb Temperatures

Soaked Cotton
Wick

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