Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Published by the
American Society for Testing and Materials
January
1966
A number of devices of this kind have been developed. One type mixes dry and humidified air in
the proportions required to give the desired humidity
[4].A second type uses salts covering a wide range
of humidities [5]. There still appears to be a need
for equipment of this type providing flexibility in
selection of both temperature and relative humidity
over a wide range and a reasonably high level of accuracy.
I n the two-nressure device described here. a streant
of air is saturated a t atmospheric pressure and then
expanded to obtain the required humidity. The
CHARLES P. HEDLIN received a B.Sc. degree from the University of
Saskatchewan and has obtained advanced degrees from the University of Minnesota and the University of Toronto. Since 1960 he has
been employed by the National Research Council of Canada a t the
Prairie Regional Station of the Division of Building Research a t Saskatoan, Sask., where his primary interests have been in precise measurement of humidity and in the sorption properties of building materials.
25
IVIercury
Manometer
( A ~ 2 )
Manometer
( AP,)
Electrical Leads
- T h r e e Sensors
Vacuum
Pump
Water Bath
Fig. 1-Two-pressure
Equipment
The saturator consisted of two copper tanks (Fig.
humidity calibrator.
The calibration chamber was of brass, 3 in. in diameter and 33 in. deep. i\/Iounting sockets were provided for three sensors on the under side of the removable lid of the chamber. The necessarv wires
were introduced into the chamber throughla tube
connected to the lid and sealed with epoxy resin. The
lid was fastened to the chamber with bolts. silicone
rubber gaskets providing a tight seal. Connections
were located on the chamber for pressure measurement, air entry, and air exit. The saturator and calibration chamber, with connecting tubing, were submerged in a water bath provided with a thermostat.
Later equiplnent was modified in three ways. The
saturator was made of brass tanks. 6 in. insteacl of 10
in. high; the line connecting the saturator to the
calibration chalnber was made of stainless steel and
was attached rigidly to the latter; and the calibration chamber was attached to the saturator bv a
clamp, which permitted movement and adjustment.
These changes resulted in a more compact unit. This
unit was used to obtain the 10 F results shown in Fig. 2.
The relative humidity was taken as the ratio of total
pressures in the calibration chamber and saturator
where:
p, = baron~etricpressure - Apl,
p, = barometric pressure - Apl - Ap2,
Apl = the pressure drop from the atmosphere to
the outlet of the saturator (measured
with a U-tube manometer filled with oil
having a specific gravity equal to unity
a t 60 F),
, , and
Ap:! = the pressure drop from the saturator to the
calibration chamber (measured with a
U-tube mercurv manometer coated internally with antistatic fluid to improve
its accuracy by decreasing the adhesion
between the mercury and the glass).
Accurate measurement of the pressures is important. An error of 1 mm Hg in Ap, will result in an
error in relative humidity of approximately 0.13 per
cent. An error of 1 mm Hg in Apl will result in an
error in relative humidity that can be written
RH - RH,
100
( 1 ( ps + 13
- Legend
-
- w = Q u ~ e s c e n t H e ~ g h tof W a t e r A b o v e Air I n l e t
w ~ t h P a c k ~ n g w h e n P a c k ~ n g w a s Used
- b = Depth o f 6 mm Beads ( ~ n
(In)
80.6
--
O F
-.
A and B - I s t a n d 2 n d
-
A
-
0
-
0
o
b w
o
o
o
o
6 0 0 1
- . O O l / , I
O
2
-
0
o
R e l a t i v e Humidity
Fig, 2-Results
January 7 966
obtained with the two-pressure system compared with calibration curves (solid lines) obtained with the atmosphere producer.
(The relative humidities a t 10 F a r e adjusted to make them correspond to supercooled water rather than to ice.)
27
28
lanuary 7 966
[ I ] G 0. Hsndegord and C. E. Till, "New Humidity Standard," Transactions, Am. Soc. Heating, Refrigerating, and
Air Conditioning Engrs., Vol. 66, 1960, pp. 288-308.
[I]A. Wexler and It. D. U:l~liels, Jr., "Pressure-Humidity
Apparatus," Journal o j Research, Nat. Bureau Standards,
Vol. 48, No. 4, Apr~l,1951, pp. 269-274.
[S] E . J. Amdur and R. W. White, "Two-Pressure Relative
Humidity Standards," Humidity and Moisture, Measurement and Control i n Science and Industrzy, Vol. 3, Reinhold
Publishing Corp., New York, 1965, pp. 445-454.
141 V. Vaisala, "Mixing Hygrostat for Calibration of Hygroscopic Hygrometers," Ibid., pp. 473-477.
[5] R. G. Wylie, "The Properties of Water-Salt Solutio~lsin
Relation to Humidity," ibid., pp. 507-517.
[6] E. R. Weaver and R. Riley, "Measurement of \I-ater in
Gases by Electrical Conduction in a Film of Hygroscopic
Material and the Use of Pressure Changes in Calibration,"
Jor~rnaloj Research, Nat. Bureau Standards, Vol. 40, No.
3, March, 1948, pp. 169-214.
[7] E. R. Weaver and R. Riley, "Measurement of Water in
Gases by Electrical Conduction in a Film of Hygroscopic
illaterial-Use
of Pressure Changes in Calibration,"
Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 20, No. 3, March, 1945, pp
216-229.
[8] E. R. Weaver, "Electrical Measurement of Water Vapor
With a Hygroscopic Film," ilnalytzcal Chemistry, Vol. 23,
No. 8, August, 1951, pp. 1076-1080.
[ g ] C. P. Hedlin, "A Resistance-Humidity Relationship for
Sensors of the Ihnrnore Type," H ~ i n ~ i d i tand
y h[oisture,
Measureme?~tand Control zn Science and Industry, Vol. 1,
Reinhold Publishing Corp. New York, 1965, pp. 273-279.