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PSYCHROMETRY

AND
PSYCHROMETRIC PROCESSES

Dr. Mohammed Osama El-Samadony


1. Definition of Air Conditioning:
Air conditioning is defined as the “the process of treating air so as to
control simultaneously its temperature, humidity, cleanliness and
distribution to meet the requirements of the conditioned space.”

As indicated in the definition, the important actions involved in the


operation of Air conditioning systems are:

• Temperature control - Room temperature is controlled to the pre-


designed dry bulb temperature by cooling or heating room air.
• Humidity control – Room air is controlled to the pre-designed relative
humidity by humidifying or dehumidifying the room air.
• Air filtering, cleaning and purification – Room air is cleaned by
removing dust and dirt from the air.
• Air movement and circulation – Air which is controlled in temperature
and humidity and cleaned is distributed evenly throughout in a room. As
a result, room air can be maintained in almost uniform temperature and
humidity conditions.
AC Applications
• Comfort Air conditioning
• Industrial Air Conditioning
Pharmaceutical facilities
Textile industry
• Others:
Therapeutic Air Conditioning
Measurements labs.
Museums
Comfort air conditioning
The objective of comfort air-conditioning as is mainly to
provide an acceptable and healthy environment (temperature,
humidity, air motion, cleanliness, odor, and acoustics) for the
majority of occupants. The most commonly recommended
design conditions for comfort are:
• Air Temperature
 Winter 20 : 23.5 degrees C.
 Summer 22.5 : 26 degrees C.
• Relative humidity of 505%
• Air velocity of about 0.1- 0.3 m/s
• Purity and Quality of air (removing odour, dust, toxic gases, and
bacteria | Fresh air: maintain CO2 in air less than 0.6%, each person requires
nearly 0.65m3 of O2 per hour and produces 0.2m3 of CO2.(6-8 L/s is
required for person)
• Noise level: less than 65 db
Environmental conditions
affecting thermal comfort

1 met: 58.2 w/m2 of human surface (Human surface = 1.8 m2)


Humidity - Health Effects
Comfort Zone
Industrial air conditioning
The air-conditioning controls and maintains an environment inside
the conditioned space that suits best to the needs of industrial
process. The conditions required for optimum operation of
machinery may or may not coincide with those favorable to human
comfort. Industrial conditions have more precise limits rather than
those for comfort conditioning which is based on statistical
surveys of occupants’ feelings. Industrial air conditioning appears
in applications such as:
• Textile enterprises, where high humidity is essential to
prevent fibers from hacking and reduce static electricity
• Clean rooms for pharmaceutical Industries and
manufacturing electronic equipment.
Moist Air
Atmospheric air

• The amount of water vapour and pollutants vary from


place to place.
• Above an altitude of about 10 km, atmospheric air
consists of only dry air.
• Hence, what we process is essentially a mixture of
various gases that constitute dry air and water
vapour. This mixture is known as moist air.
Mm = niMi
R
Rm  u ( kJ / kg  K )
Mm
k k
H m   H i   m i hi (kJ)
i 1 i 1
PSYCHROMETRICS

Psychrometry is the study of the properties of mixtures of


air and water vapour.
Psychrometric chart is a graphical representation of the
thermodynamic properties of moist air.
• It describes all the possible combinations of temperature,
moisture content, density and energy relating to air at one
time.
• With any two properties of air, the remaining properties
can be determined graphically.
THE PSYCHROMETRIC CHART
PROPERTIES OF THE PSYCHROMETRIC
CHART AND THEIR DEFINITIONS
DRY BULB TEMPERATURE
DRY BULB TEMPERATURE is
the temperature that we measure with
a standard thermometer that has no
water on its surface. When people
refer to the temperature of the air,
they are commonly referring to its dry
bulb temperature. Dry bulb
temperature is represented by vertical
lines on the chart and is displayed at
the bottom, increasing from left to
right. The unit of measure used for
dry bulb temperature is °C .
WET BULB TEMPERATURE
WET BULB TEMPERATURE is
a temperature associated with the
moisture content of the air. Wet
bulb temperature is taken by
surrounding the thermometer
with a wet wick and measuring
the reading as the water
evaporates. Wet bulb
temperatures are always lower
than dry bulb temperatures and
the only time that they will be the
same is at saturation (i.e. 100%
relative humidity).
MOISTURE CONTENT / HUMIDITY RATIO
• MOISTURE CONTENT / MOISTURE
HUMIDITY RATIO (ω) CONTENT

differs from relative humidity


in that it is the amount of
water vapour, by weight, in the
air. The unit of measure used
for humidity ratio is KG
MOISTURE / KG OF DRY
mw  R T  Pv R a Pv M v
AIR. PV
v

Where, P = Pv + Pa   PV 
v

ma  
a
R aT
Pa Rv Pa M a
18.01 Pv Pv
  0.622
28.966 Pa P  Pv
RELATIVE HUMIDITY
RELATIVE HUMIDITY is the
measure of how saturated the air
is with water vapour. If the air is
holding all the moisture it can
for a specific set of conditions,
then it is said to be saturated. At
this saturated state it is said to
have a relative humidity of
100%. Relative humidity is
measured as how much water
vapour is present in the air as a
percentage of how much water
vapour would be in the same air
at saturation.
DEW POINT
DEW POINT (Tdp or DPT)
corresponds to the temperature at
which air becomes completely
saturated. At dew point dry bulb
temperature and wet bulb
temperature are exactly the same.
Dew point is represented along
the 100% relative humidity line on
the psychrometric chart.

where F is the relative humidity (in


fraction). TDB & DPT are in oC.
Relation between Humidity Ratio (ω)
And Relative Humidity (Ф)
P

(0.622   )Ps
0.622 Ps

P   Ps
Ps is readily available in thermodynamic tables
and charts. ASHRAE suggests the following The difference between specific
regression equation for saturated vapour and relative humidities.
pressure of water, which is valid for 0 to 100oC

Where, Ps = saturated vapor pressure of water in kPa


T = temperature in K
The regression coefficients c1 to c6 are given by:
c1 = -5.80022006E+03, c2 = -5.516256E+00, c3 = -4.8640239E-02
c4 = 4.1764768E-05, c5 = -1.4452093E-08, c6 = 6.5459673E+00
Degree of Saturation or saturation ratio (µ)
it is defined as the ratio of specific humidity of actual
air (ω) to the specific humidity of saturated air (ωs) at
the same temperature.
ENTHALPY
• ENTHALPY is the measure of the total energy
in the air divided to:
• Sensible heat is the heat (energy) in the air
due to the temperature of the air.
• Latent heat is the heat (energy) in the air due
to the moisture content in the air.

The enthalpy of moist (atmospheric) air is


expressed per unit mass of dry air, not
• Following this, air with same amount of energy per unit mass of moist air.
may either be dry hot air (high sensible heat) or
cool moist air (high latent heat).
• Enthalpy lines run almost along the same lines
as wet bulb temperature and in most applications
the same lines can used for both properties.
• The unit of measure for enthalpy is kJ / kg OF
DRY AIR.
SPECIFIC VOLUME
• SPECIFIC VOLUME is the volume that a certain
weight of air occupies, at a specific set of conditions.
Specific volume is represented by lines that slant from
the lower right hand corner towards the upper left hand
corner at a steeper angle than the lines of wet bulb
temperature and enthalpy. The unit of measure used for
specific volume is CUBIC METRES / KG OF DRY
AIR.
VAPOUR PRESSURE
• VAPOUR PRESSURE Pv: Each water molecule in the
air exerts pressure on the surrounding environment. The
partial pressure of water vapour in the air, when the air is
unsaturated we can be calculated according to the
experimental equation,
• Pv can also be determined on the psychrometric
chart. Vapour pressure is represented by lines that
run horizontally and the values are on the far right
hand side of the chart increasing from bottom to
top. The unit of measure for vapour pressure is Pa.
Summary
Solved Examples
Sensible Heat Ratio (SHR)
• The ratio of space sensible cooling to total cooling is useful for
plotting the slope of the path that supply air travels after
introduction into the space.
• A scale around the right and top edges of the chart gives the
SHR values. Also, there is an index point in the middle of the
chart at the 78°F DB and 65°F WB condition.
Using the enthalpy/humidity
“protractor”
• Protractor in upper left hand side of psychrometric chart is
useful in getting final conditions of complicated mixing
problems
• Example: Define supply conditions necessary for air
conditioning air into a space

Sensible Heat QS
=
Total Heat QT

Enthalpy h
Outside: =
Humidity Ratio W
Sensible Heat Ratio (SHR) – cont.

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