Course: Food Thermodynamics

Topics: PSYCHROMETRY

Dr. Aasima Rafiq

Scientist (Food Technology)
KVK Srinagar
SKUAST-Kashmir
CONTENTS
 Concept of psychrometry and psychrometrics.
 Definitions
 Psychrometric relations
 Psychrometers
 Psychrometric charts
 Psychrometric processes :
 Mixing of air streams
 Sensible heating

 Sensible cooling

 Cooling and dehumidification

 Cooling and humidification

 Heating and dehumidification—Heating and

humidification
 CONCEPT OF PSYCHROMETRY AND PSYCHROMETRICS
 Air comprises of fixed gases principally, nitrogen and oxygen with an
admixture of water vapour in varying amounts.
 In atmospheric air, water is always present and its relative weight
averages less than 1% of the weight of atmospheric air in temperate climates
and less than 3% by weight under the most extreme natural climatic
conditions.
 It is nevertheless one of most important factors in human comfort and has
significant effects on many materials.
 Its effect on human activities is in fact altogether disproportionate to its
relative weights.
The art of measuring the moisture content of air is termed “psychrometry”.
The science which investigates the thermal properties of moist air, considers the
measurement and control of the moisture content of air,
and studies the effect of atmospheric moisture on material and human comfort
may properly betermed “psychrometrics’’.
Psychrometry is the study of the properties of mixtures of air and water
vapour
DEFINITIONS
Some of the more important definitions are given below :
1. Dry air. The international joint committee on Psychometric Data has
adopted the following exact composition of air expressed in mole fractions
(Volumetric) Oxygen 0.2095, Nitrogen 0.7809, Argon 0.0093, Carbon dioxide
0.0003. Traces of rare gases are neglected.
Molecular weight of air for all air conditioning calculations will be taken as
28.97. Hence the gas constant
R=Ru/Mgas
(wheres Ru is the universal gas constant equal to 8.3143 J /mol K and Mgas
is the molecular weight of air)

Dry air is never found in practice. Air always contains some moisture.
Hence the common designation “air” usually means moist air.
The term ‘dry air’ is used to indicate the water free contents of air having any
degree of moisture
2. Saturated air: Moist air is said to be saturated when its condition
is such that it can co-exist in natural equilibrium with an associated
condensed moisture phase presenting a flat surface to it.
For a given temperature, a given quantity of air can be saturated
with a fixed quantity of moisture.
At higher temperatures, it requires a larger quantity of moisture to
saturate air.
3. Dry-bulb temperature (DBT): Dry bulb temperature is the
temperature of the air, as measured by an ordinary thermometer.
The temperature of water vapor is the same as that of the dry air in
moist air. Such a thermometer is called a dry-bulb thermometer in
psychrometry, because its bulb is dry.

4. Wet-bulb temperature (WBT): It is the temperature registered by

a thermometer when the bulb is covered by a wetted wick and is
exposed to a current of rapidly moving air (twb).
Wet bulb temperature is thermodynamic adiabatic temperature in an
adiabatic saturation process, and measured by a wet bulb
thermometer
5. Adiabatic saturation temperature: It is the temperature at which the
water or ice can saturate air by evaporating adiabatically into it. It is
numerically equivalent to the measured wet bulb temperature.
6. Wet bulb depression: It is the difference between dry-bulb and wet
bulb temperatures.
7. Dew point temperature (DPT): It is the temperature to which air must
be cooled at constant pressure in order to cause condensation of any of
its water vapour.
8. Dew point depression: It is the difference between the dry bulb and
dew point temperatures (tdb – tdp).
9. Specific humidity (Humidity ratio): It is the ratio of the mass of water
vapour per unit mass of dry air in the mixture of vapour and air, it is
generally expressed as grams of water per kg of dry air. For a given
barometric pressure it is a function of dew point temperature alone.
10.Relative humidity (RH): It is the ratio of the partial pressure of water
vapour in the mixture to the saturated partial pressure at the dry bulb
temperature, expressed as percentage
11. Sensible heat: It is the heat that changes the temperature of a
substance when added to or abstracted from it.
12. Latent heat: It is the heat that does not affect the temperature
but changes the state of substance when added to or abstracted
from it.
13. Enthalpy: It is the combination energy which represents the sum
of internal and flow energy in a steady flow process. It is
determined from an arbitrary datum point for the air mixture and
is expressed as kJ per kg of dry air (h).
Note. When air is saturated DBT, WBT, DPT are equal
PSYCHROMETRIC RELATIONS
pt : Total pressure of moist air
Relative humidity : Relative humidity is defined as the ratio of the mole fraction of the
water vapor in a given moist air to the mole fraction of water vapor in a saturated moist
air at the same temperature and the same atmospheric pressure.
Adiabatic saturation process
In an insulated chamber when unsaturated air flows over a long sheet of water the water
evaporates, and the specific humidity of the air increases.

As the evaporation takes place both the air and water are cooled. The process continues
until the energy transferred from the air to the water is equal to the energy required to
vapourise the water.

When this point is reached thermal equilibrium exists with respect to water, air and
water vapour, and consequently the air is saturated.

The equilibrium temperature is called the adiabatic saturation temperature or the

thermodynamic wet bulb temperature.

The make-up water is introduced at this temperature to make the water level constant
 PSYCHROMETERS
A psychrometer is a device which is used for measuring dry bulb
and wet bulb temperatures simultaneously.

The psychrometers may be classified as follows :

 1. Laboratory psychrometer

 2. Sling psychrometer

 3. Aspirating psychrometer

 4. Continuous recording psychrometer

Sling psychrometer
The sling psychrometer consists of two thermometers mounted on a base
plate viz. wet-bulb and dry-bulb hermometer .
The handle of the frame helps for rotating the psychrometer to produce necessary air
motion.
As the psychrometer is rotated it provides necessary air velocity over the thermometer.
The temperature spread between dry bulb and wet bulb readings depends upon the amount
of moisture in the air.
Dry air, or air that has low moisture content has a low wet bulb temperature ; humid air
that has a high moisture content, has a high wet-bulb temperature.
When dry and wet bulb temperatures are known the other psychrometric properties like
relative humidity, dew point temperature, degree of saturation, humidity ratio, and volume
of airvapour mixture per kg of dry air are determined by calculations.
 PSYCHROMETRIC CHARTS
The psychrometric charts are prepared to represent graphically all the
necessary moist air properties used for air conditioning calculations. The
values are based on actual measurements verified for thermodynamic
consistency
The chart is constructed as under :
1. The dry bulb temperature (ºC) of unit mass of dry air for different
humidity contents or humidity ratios are indicated by vertical lines drawn
parallel to the ordinate.
2. The mass of water vapour in kg (or grams) per kg of dry air is drawn
parallel to the abcissa for different values of dry bulb temperature. It is the
major vertical scale of the chart.
3. Pressure of water vapour in mm of mercury is shown in the scale at left
and is the absolute pressure of steam.
4. Dew point temperatures are temperatures corresponding to the boiling
points of water at low pressures of water vapour and are shown in the scale
on the upper curved line. The dew points
for different low pressures are read on diagonal co-ordinates.
Skeleton of Psychrometric Chart
5. Constant relative humidity lines in per cent are indicated by marking off vertical
distances between the saturation line or the upper curved line and the base of the
chart. The relative humidity curve depicts quantity (kg) of moisture actually
present in the air as a percentage of the total amount possible at various dry bulb
temperatures and masses of vapour.
6. Enthalpy or total heat at saturation temperature in kJ/kg of dry air is shown by a
diagonal system of co-ordinates. The scale on the diagonal line is separate from the
body of the
chart and is indicated above the saturation line.
7. Wet bulb temperatures are shown on the diagonal co-ordinates coinciding with
heat coordinates. The scale of wet bulb temperatures is shown on the saturation
curve. The diagonals run downwards to the right at an angle of 30º to the
horizontal.
8. The volume of air vapour mixture per kg of dry air (specific volume) is also
indicated by a set of diagonal co-ordinates but at an angle of 60º with the
horizontal.
The other properties of air vapour mixtures can be determined by using
formulae
Psychrometric Chart
In relation to the psychrometric chart, these terms can quickly indicate many
things about the condition of air, for example :
1. If dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures are known, the relative humidity can be
read from the chart.
2. If the dry bulb and relative humidity are known, the wet bulb temperature can
be determined.
3. If wet bulb temperature and relative humidity are known, the dry bulb
temperature can be found.
. If wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures are known, the dew point can be found.
5. If wet bulb and relative humidity are known, dew point can be read from the
chart.
6. If dry-bulb and relative humidity are known, dew point can be found.
7. The quantity (kg) of moisture in air can be determined from any of the
following combinations :
(i) Dry bulb temperature and relative humidity ;
(ii) Dry bulb temperature and dew point ;
(iii) Wet bulb temperature and relative humidity ;
(iv) Wet bulb temperature and dew point temperature ;
(v) Dry bulb temperature and wet bulb temperature ; and
(vi) Dew point temperature alone.
 PSYCHROMETRIC PROCESSES
In order to condition air to the conditions of human comfort or of the optimum
control of an industrial process required, certain processes are to be carried out
on the outside air available. The
processes affecting the psychrometric properties of air are called psychrometric
processes.
These processes involve mixing of air streams, heating, cooling, humidifying,
dehumidifying, adiabatic saturation and mostly the combinations of these.
The important psychrometric processes are
1. Mixing of air streams
2. Sensible heating
3. Sensible cooling
4. Cooling and dehumidification
5. Cooling and humidification
6. Heating and dehumidification
7. Heating and humidification