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Investigation on relative humidity and condensation of water particles in a

home kitchen

Article in International Journal of Applied Engineering Research · January 2015

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J. Jayaprabakar Parthipan Jayaram

Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology
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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 11 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

Investigation on Relative Humidity and

Condensation of Water particles in a Home Kitchen

Jayaprabakar.J* Parthipan. J, Rakesh kumar. N

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sathyabama University Sathyabama University
Chennai, India Chennai, India
jp21tn@gmail.com magnaparthi@gmail.com

Abstract— To maintain the Air Quality of any air conditioned Moisture moves always from high humidity areas to low
space controlling the relative humidity is the essential aspect. humidity areas. In winter season, the air inside the house is
Human comfort can be arrived by removing or controlling the warm and moist. In rain season, outside air is much cold and
excess moisture present. The relative humidity of system depends can holding very less moisture. When there is colder in outside
on the system's pressure and temperature. This work aims to than inside, the inside air will move to outside chiefly through
propose a new system that could deliver the supply air with less doors and windows. Treated fresh air can be Introduced into a
dew point temperature as much as possible when compared to a building to improve its Indoor Air Quality, this can eliminate
conventional one. Simulation for the existing kitchen was done many problems associated with poor ventilation and lack of
and with the results new system is proposed. The proposed
fresh air [4].
system will be better than the typical reheat system to provide
much low humidity levels. In this work a home was analyzed for its moisture flow.
The reasons for moisture flow were also carefully examined.
Keywords— relative humidity; condensation; moisture; A thorough study was made using various literatures and also
trajectory analysis a new system was proposed to overcome all the problems
discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION
Air temperature and humidity are the two important II. TRAJECTORY ANALYSIS
properties in urban climate that implies in the areas for human The following figures from 1 to 3 shows the Temperature
comfort and health. They are considered as essential trajectory, Flow trajectory and the particulate trajectory
components of a comfortable environment [1]. These climatic analysis for an Existing Kitchen unit. The analysis was done
variables air temperature, humidity are affected by each other. with local climatic conditions as input by using
The air temperature variation leads to a change in water SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation Software.
evaporation and air saturation thus alters the air humidity.
Relative humidity varies significantly when the temperature
changes, at the actual amount of water vapor in the air remains
constant. There will be reduction in temperature and increase
in the relative humidity when the amount of water vapor is
kept at constant, Otherwise there will be increase in
temperature and decrease in relative humidity.
Excessive moisture is a big problem in homes which
causes dis-comfortness, building damage and even illness [2].
A high moisture level in a home can seriously affect people
with allergies and other respiratory problems. Also, high
levels of moisture encourage wood decay damage, creating
extra maintenance and some pollutants like formaldehyde are
released more easily into moist air then dry air. Moulds,
mildews, dust mites and other microorganisms grow and
multiply best in a warm, moist environment. The amount of
moisture that can be hold by the air depends on its
temperature. Warm air can absorb more moisture than cold air.
Most people are comfortable when the relative humidity is 40
percent to 60 percent [3].Excessive moisture in a house is Fig. 1. Temperature flow
caused by the reasons like i) Sources from inside the house, ii)
Sources from outside the house and iii) Inadequate ventilation.

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 11 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com

Fig. 2. Flow Trajectory Fig. 4. Condensation from excessive indoor

IV. CAUSES OF MOLD GROWTH

The molds and mildews are hard fungi normally these can
grow rapidly in damp and poor ventilated places where there are
no disturbances.

Fig. 3. Particle Trajectory

III. CONDENSATION ON WINDOWS

Fig. 5. Mold growth caused by condensation on the cool cabinet placed against
When the warm and moist air contacts with a cool surface an exterior wall
Condensation occurs. In a kitchen, cool surface is formed on a
window. Controlled moisture sources will reduce the humidity
level in the home and increased ventilation will also helps to
control the condensation. This can be achieved by double pane
windows. Compared to double pane windows single-pane
windows poses more winter condensation due to their high
heat loss. This will occur even the indoor moisture is
controlled. Due to this reason, the window frame made by
aluminium material will attract seasonal condensation; this can
be avoided by providing an outer storm window. Poor sealing
is often a problem due to this; warm air escapes through this
space and window. The inner surface of window will
experience condensation. Proper sealing can reduce this
problem. Moisture in the window glass is drained and pounds
on the window sill. Slowly it soaks in to the dry wall. This
provides enormous amount of moisture to produce the black
mold growth visible next to the window. Fig. 6. Mold growth in Kitc hen corner of exterior wall due to high relative
The reasons for condensation in a home was studied and humidity
depicted in Figures 4 to 8.

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 11 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com
Fig. 7. Mold growth on inside surface of door, cold surface contacts with
moist air, gets wet and indulges mold growth.
Fig. 8. Mold growing on roof
V. THE MOISTURE BALANCE OF A ROOM
The moisture balance can be controlled by various factors
of a room like outdoor climate, moisture supply, moisture
buffers from surface materials of the room and the furnishing,
ventilation rate, possible condensation at the surfaces and
variation of all these parameters against time. The moisture
balance time scale for a room can vary according to the
seasonal variations, this can be fixed by taking the variations
of the external climate annually in to account.
The moisture supply was assumed to change uniformly
within volume of the room. Using these assumptions, the
moisture supply against time can be simplified to step
variations. The variations in moisture supply and moisture
production have been studied earlier by Norlen and Anderson
(1993).
The ability of the interior surfaces to buffer the moisture
contents of the indoor air is denoted by Gmb, the absorption or
desorption of moisture in the different surface materials at a
given time. This sorption in materials can dampen the
moisture variations of the indoor air. The surfaces of the inside
of the building envelope like ceilings, floors, walls and the
furniture and also the other furnishings will give an impact on
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the moisture conditions in the room (Plathner and Woloszyn
(2002).
VI. MOISTURE BUFFER PERFORMANCE
The moisture buffer performance is influenced by several
material properties. These are the moisture capacity, the
permeability of water vapor and the time period of these
variations. The moisture buffer performance of a material is its
ability to dampen the moisture variations which surrounds it.
VII. MATERIALS EXPOSED TO THE INDOOR AIR
The materials exposed to indoor air from heavy concrete
walls in the building construction to lightweight fabrics which
found in furnishings are heterogeneous in nature.
Fig. 9. The proposed Kitchen unit
Examples for these materials polymers wood, cotton and
paper. In other hand, the materials which exposed to indoor air
will often offers a surface coating in one way or another. The
proposed kitchen unit with laminated floor, untreated wooden
ceiling, painted interior walls and wood furniture and with
Fabric curtains is shown in the above figure 9.
VIII. CONCLUSION
A comfortable and healthy indoor kitchen air environment
is always a need for the occupants. In recent past years, indoor
thermal comfort is improved much due to the Research and
development activities in air conditioning systems. As health
problems occurred due to the variations in relative humidity
either low or high. A model of the existing kitchen was made
and inlet condition of air (temperature, humidity, pressure)
was chosen according to the local conditions and the flow,
temperature and particle trajectory analysis was made using
Solid works flow simulation. It can be concluded that, a
comfort, healthy and energy saving environment is today’s
need. In this study the three dimensional flow fields were
analyzed and the distribution of relative humidity, and
temperature in home kitchens were presented. The main
objective of this kind of design practice is the adjustment in
the airflow rate, which is much needed for extracting the
convective heat and also the contaminants in the occupied
 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 11 (2015)
© Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.com
zone. Lesser air flow rates can lead to indoor air problems and
also an oversized ventilation system increases the unwanted
energy consumption and also the ventilation system’s lifecycle
cost.
R EFERENCES
1) American Standards of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers (ASHRAE).Standard 55-2004. Atlanta: ASHRAE, 2004.
2) Puget Sound Energy,” Control the moisture in your home”, 1210, 02/14.
3) D. Boyd, P. Cooper, “Domestic kitchen extract fans: Effectiveness in
surface condensation prevention”, Building and Environment, Volume
24, Issue 4, 1989, Pages 335–345.
4) Donghyun Rim, Lance Wallace, Steven Nabinger, Andrew Persily,
“Reduction of exposure to ultrafine particles by kitchen exhaust hoods:
The effects of exhaust flow rates, particle size, and burner position”,
Science of The Total Environment, Volume 432, 15 August 2012,
Pages 350–356.
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5) Targo Kalamees, Minna Korpi, Juha Vinha, Jarek Kurnitski, “The
effects of ventilation systems and building fabric on the stability of
indoor temperature and humidity in Finnish detached houses”, Building
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