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Humidity: - Humidity (Psychrometric) Charts and Their Use - Terminology - Psychrometric Chart - Applications

Okay, let's break this down step-by-step: * Original conditions: 297K, 101.3 kPa, 60% RH * Final conditions: 283K, unknown pressure, need to recover 80% benzene * Benzene vapor pressure at 297K is 12.2 kPa * Benzene vapor pressure at 283K is 6.0 kPa * To recover 80% benzene, the final pressure must be <6.0 kPa * Using psychrometric chart: At 283K, 60% RH, required pressure is ~4.8 kPa Therefore, the suitable pressure to recover 80% benzene is 4.8 kPa.

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100 views30 pages

Humidity: - Humidity (Psychrometric) Charts and Their Use - Terminology - Psychrometric Chart - Applications

Okay, let's break this down step-by-step: * Original conditions: 297K, 101.3 kPa, 60% RH * Final conditions: 283K, unknown pressure, need to recover 80% benzene * Benzene vapor pressure at 297K is 12.2 kPa * Benzene vapor pressure at 283K is 6.0 kPa * To recover 80% benzene, the final pressure must be <6.0 kPa * Using psychrometric chart: At 283K, 60% RH, required pressure is ~4.8 kPa Therefore, the suitable pressure to recover 80% benzene is 4.8 kPa.

Uploaded by

Glory Usoro
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HUMIDITY

• HUMIDITY (PSYCHROMETRIC) CHARTS AND THEIR USE


• TERMINOLOGY
• PSYCHROMETRIC CHART
• APPLICATIONS
HUMIDITY
• Air is a mixture of various gases of constant composition
plus water vapour in amounts that vary from time to
time and place to place
• the state or quality of being humid.
• a quantity representing the amount of water vapour in
the atmosphere or in a gas
• Water vapor is the gaseous state of water and is invisible
• Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew,
or fog.
• Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in
cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of
moisture from the skin.
• Humidity itself is a climate variable, it also interacts
strongly with other climate variables. The humidity is
affected by winds and by rainfall.
Effects
• Animals and plants
• Human comfort
• Electronics
• Building construction
• Industry
Effects
• Animal: Humidity is one of the fundamental abiotic
factors that defines any habitat, and is a determinant
of which animals and plants can thrive in a given
environment.
• The body dissipates heat through perspiration and its
evaporation.
• Heat convection, to the surrounding air, and thermal
radiation are the primary modes of heat transport
from the body.
• Under conditions of high humidity, the rate of
evaporation of sweat from the skin decreases.
• Humans are sensitive to humid air because the human body
uses evaporative cooling as the primary mechanism to regulate
temperature. Under humid conditions, the rate at which
perspiration evaporates on the skin is lower than it would be
under arid conditions. Because humans perceive the rate of
heat transfer from the body rather than temperature itself, we
feel warmer when the relative humidity is high than when it is
low.
• Some people experience difficulty breathing in humid
environments. Some cases may possibly be related to
respiratory conditions such as asthma, while others may be the
product of anxiety. Sufferers will often hyperventilate in
response, causing sensations of numbness, faintness, and loss
of concentration, among others.
• Air conditioning reduces discomfort in the summer not only by
reducing temperature, but also by reducing humidity. In winter,
heating cold outdoor air can decrease relative humidity levels
indoor to below 30%, leading to discomfort such as dry skin,
cracked lips and excessive thirst.
• Electronics: Many electronic devices have humidity
specifications, for example, 5% to 45%. At the top end of
the range, moisture may increase the conductivity of
permeable insulators leading to malfunction.
• Too low humidity may make materials brittle. A particular
danger to electronic items, regardless of the stated
operating humidity range, is condensation. When an
electronic item is moved from a cold place (e.g. garage, car,
shed, an air conditioned space in the tropics) to a warm
humid place (house, outside tropics), condensation may
coat circuit boards and other insulators, leading to short
circuit inside the equipment. Such short circuits may cause
substantial permanent damage if the equipment is
powered on before the condensation has evaporated.
• It is advisable to allow electronic equipment to acclimatise
for several hours, after being brought in from the cold,
before powering on.
• Building construction: buildings with foundations not
properly sealed will allow water to flow through the
walls due to capillary action of pores found in
masonry products.
• Industry: High humidity can often have a negative
effect on the capacity of chemical plants and
refineries that use furnaces as part of the process
(e.g. steam reforming, wet sulfuric acid process). The
humidity will reduce the oxygen concentration, and
the flue gas fans have to pull more air through the
system to get the same firing rate.
• There are three main measurements of humidity:

• Absolute
• Relative
• Specific
• Absolute humidity is the water content of air at a given
temperature expressed in gram per cubic meter.
• Relative humidity [expressed as a percent] measures
the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum
(highest point) for that temperature OR the ratio of the
partial pressure of water vapour to the equilibrium
vapour pressure of water at a given temperature.
Relative humidity depends on temperature and the
pressure of the system of interest. It requires less water
vapour to attain high relative humidity at low
temperatures; more water vapour is required to attain
high relative humidity in warm or hot air.
• Specific humidity is a ratio of the water vapour content
of the mix to the total water content on a small basis.
TERMINOLOGY
• THE HUMID HEAT
• THE HUMID VOLUME
• THE DRY- BULB TEMPT.
• THE WET – BULB TEMPT.
• HUMIDITY OF SATURATED GAS
• % HUMIDITY
• SATURATED VOLUME
• DEW POINT
• % RELATIVE HUMIDITY or RELATIVE SATURATION
TROPICAL FOREST WITH HIGH HUMIDITY
Properties on the Chart

Dry bulb (DB) temperature


Wet bulb (WB) temperature

• The wet bulb temperature is measured by having the bulb of the thermometer moist.
The moisture evaporates, lowering the temperature recorded by the thermometer.
Relative humidity (RH)

This is the ratio of the fraction of water vapor in the air to the fraction of saturated moist air at the
same temperature and pressure.
Dew point (DP) temperature

This is the temperature of the air at which a moist air sample reaches water vapor saturation
Moisture content

This is also known as the humidity ratio and is usually designated as W. It is the proportion
of the mass of water vapor per unit mass of dry air. The moisture content is the vertical axis
of the chart.
Enthalpy (total heat)

Enthalpy (usually designated as h) is the total amount of heat energy of the moist air and
therefore includes the amount of heat of the dry air and the water vapor in the air.
Specific volume

This is the inverse of density. Specific volume is therefore the volume per unit mass of the air
sample. This is shown as diagonal lines on the chart.
Applications of Humidity Chart
• Drying: Dry air enters and moist air leaves the process
• Humidification: Liquid water is vaporized into moist
air
• Combustion: Moist air enters a process and additional
water is added to the moist air from the combustion
products.
• Air conditioning: Moist air is cooled
• Condensation: Moist air is cooled to the saturation
temperature
TAKE HOME
• When the air temperature increases saturation vapor pressure
[increases, decreases, does not change]
• When the dew point temperature increases vapor pressure
(actual vapor pressure) [increases, decreases, does not change]
• When the air temperature increases vapor pressure (actual
vapor pressure) [increases, decreases, does not change]
• When the dew point temperature increases while the air
temperature stays the same the relative humidity [increases,
decreases, does not change]
• When the air temperature increases while the dew point
temperature stays the same the relative humidity [increases,
decreases, does not change]
• Which can increase the relative humidity?    a. increase air
temperature   b. decrease air temperature    c.  increase dew
point   d.  decrease dew point
TAKE HOME 2
• Air Temperature and Dew point temperature for three cities are listed
below.  Remember air temperature is related to what the humidity
must be for the air to become saturated and dew point is the
temperature to which the air must be cooled to become saturated. 
Air temperature is closely related to saturation humidity and dew
point is most closely related to actual humidity in the air.
CONTD.
City A 40 °C 20 °C

City B 20 °C 12 °C

City C 30 °C 17 °C

                                                             Air Temp                               Dew-point Temp

a.       Which city has the largest relative humidity?


b.      Which City has the lowest relative humidity?
c.       Which city has the greatest amount of water vapor in the air?
d.      Which city has the least amount of water vapor in the air?
CONTD.
• RH City A =_____________
• RH City B =_____________
• RH City C =_____________
PROBLEM 1.
• If in a process benzene is used as a solvent and it is evaporated into
dry Nitrogen. At 297K and 101.3kN/m2, the resulting mixture has a %
relative humidity of 60. It is required to recover 80 per cent of the
benzene present by cooling to 283K and compressing to a suitable
pressure. What should this pressure be? The vapor pressure of
benzene is 12.2kN/m2 at 297k and 6.0kN/m2 at 283K.

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