PART 3: PSYCHROMETRIC PROCESSES

I. The Psychrometric Chart

The sizing of a typical air-conditioning system involves numerous calculations, which may
eventually get on the nerves of even the most patient engineers. Therefore, there is clear motivation
to computerize calculations or to do these calculations once and to present the data in the form of
easily readable charts. Such charts are called psychrometric charts, and they are used extensively
in air-conditioning applications.

The psychrometric chart also serves as a valuable aid in visualizing the air-conditioning processes.
An ordinary heating or cooling process, for example, appears as a horizontal line on this chart if
no humidification or dehumidification is involved (that is, specific humidity = constant). Any
deviation from a horizontal line indicates that moisture is added or removed from the air during
the process.
Review Problem No.1
Consider a room that contains air at 1 atm, 35°C, and 40 percent relative humidity. Using the
psychrometric chart, determine (a) the specific humidity, (b) the enthalpy, (c) the wet-bulb
temperature, (d) the dew-point temperature, and (e) the specific volume of the air.

Verify your answer using previously discussed equations.

Review Problem No.2

A 5-m X 5-m X 3-m room contains air at 25°C and 100 kPa at a relative humidity of 75 percent.
Determine (a) the partial pressure of dry air, (b) the specific humidity, (c) the enthalpy per unit
mass of the dry air, and (d) the masses of the dry air and water vapor in the room.

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
 II. Air-Conditioning Processes

Maintaining a living space or an industrial facility at the desired temperature and humidity requires
some processes called air-conditioning processes. These processes include simple heating (raising
the temperature), simple cooling (lowering the temperature), humidifying (adding moisture), and
dehumidifying (removing moisture). Sometimes two or more of these processes are needed to
bring the air to a desired temperature and humidity level.

Various Air-Conditioning Processes

Most air-conditioning processes can be modeled as steady-flow processes, and thus the mass
balance relation can be expressed for dry air and water as:

Disregarding the kinetic and potential energy changes, the steady-flow energy balance relation
(Ein = Eout) can be expressed in this case as:

a. Simple Heating and Cooling (SH=constant)

Many residential heating systems consist of a stove, a heat pump, or an electric resistance heater.
The air in these systems is heated by circulating it through a duct that contains the tubing for the
hot gases or the electric resistance wires.

The amount of moisture in the air remains constant during this process since no moisture is added
to or removed from the air. That is, the specific humidity of the air remains constant during a
heating (or cooling) process with no humidification or dehumidification. Such a heating process
proceeds in the direction of increasing dry-bulb temperature following a line of constant specific
humidity on the psychrometric chart, which appears as a horizontal line.

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
 During simple heating, specific humidity remains constant, but relative humidity decreases
A cooling process at constant specific humidity is similar to the heating process except the dry-
bulb temperature decreases and the relative humidity increases during such a process. Cooling can
be accomplished by passing the air over some coils through which a refrigerant or chilled water
flows.

The conservation of mass equations for a heating or cooling process that involves no
humidification or dehumidification reduce to m a1=ma2=ma for dry air and SH1 = SH2 for water.
Neglecting any fan work that may be present, the conservation of energy equation in this case
reduces to:

where h1 and h2 are enthalpies per unit mass of dry air at the inlet and the exit of the heating or
cooling section, respectively.

b. Heating with Humidification

Problems associated with the low relative humidity resulting from simple heating can be
eliminated by humidifying the heated air. This is accomplished by passing the air first through a
heating section (process 1-2) and then through a humidifying section (process 2-3), as shown
below.

Heating and Humidification

The location of state 3 depends on how the humidification is accomplished. If steam is introduced
in the humidification section, this will result in humidification with additional heating (T 3>T2). If
humidification is accomplished by spraying water into the airstream instead, part of the latent heat
of vaporization comes from the air, which results in the cooling of the heated airstream (T3<T2).
Air should be heated to a higher temperature in the heating section in this case to make up for the
cooling effect during the humidification process.

Review Problem No. 3 (Heating and Humidification)

An air-conditioning system is to take in outdoor air at 10°C and 30 percent relative humidity at a
steady rate of 45 m³/min and to condition it to 25°C and 60 percent relative humidity. The outdoor
air is first heated to 22°C in the heating section and then humidified by the injection of hot steam
in the humidifying section. Assuming the entire process takes place at a pressure of 100 kPa,
determine (a) the rate of heat supply in the heating section and (b) the mass flow rate of the steam
required in the humidifying section.

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
 c. Cooling with Dehumidification

The specific humidity of air remains constant during a simple cooling process, but its relative
humidity increases. If the relative humidity reaches undesirably high levels, it may be necessary
to remove some moisture from the air, that is, to dehumidify it. This requires cooling the air below
its dew point temperature.

Review Problem No. 4

Air enters a window air conditioner at 1 atm, 30°C, and 80 percent relative humidity at a rate of
10 m³/min, and it leaves as saturated air at 14°C. Part of the moisture in the air that condenses
during the process is also removed at 14°C. Determine the rates of heat and moisture removal
from the air.

Note:
1. If the cooling section is sufficiently long, air reaches its dew point (state x,
saturated air). Further cooling of air results in the condensation of part of
the moisture in the air.
2. Air remains saturated during the entire condensation process, which follows
a line of 100 percent relative humidity until the final state (state 2) is reached.

d. Evaporative Cooling

Conventional cooling systems operate on a refrigeration cycle, and they can be used in any part of
the world. But they have a high initial and operating cost. In desert (hot and dry) climates, we can
avoid the high cost of cooling by using evaporative coolers, also known as swamp coolers.

Evaporative cooling is based on a simple principle: As water evaporates, the latent heat of
vaporization is absorbed from the water body and the surrounding air. As a result, both the water
and the air are cooled during the process. This approach has been used for thousands of years to
cool water. A porous jug or pitcher filled with water is left in an open, shaded area. A small amount
of water leaks out through the porous holes and the pitcher “sweats.” In a dry environment, this
water evaporates and cools the remaining water in the pitcher.

Water in a porous jug left in an open, breezy area cools as a result of evaporative cooling.

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
You have probably noticed that on a hot, dry day the air feels a lot cooler when the yard is watered.
This is because water absorbs heat from the air as it evaporates. An evaporative cooler works on
the same principle. The evaporative cooling process is shown schematically and on a
psychrometric chart below. Hot, dry air at state 1 enters the evaporative cooler, where it is sprayed
with liquid water. Part of the water evaporates during this process by absorbing heat from the
airstream. As a result, the temperature of the airstream decreases and its humidity increases (state
2). In the limiting case, the air leaves the evaporative cooler saturated at state 2ˈ. This is the lowest
temperature that can be achieved by this process.

Evaporative Cooling

Review Problem No. 5 (Evaporative Cooling of Air by a Swamp Cooler)

Air enters an evaporative (or swamp) cooler at 101.325 Kpa, 35°C, and 20 percent relative
humidity, and it exits at 80 percent relative humidity. Determine (a) the exit temperature of the air
and (b) the lowest temperature to which the air can be cooled by this evaporative cooler.

e. Adiabatic Mixing of Airstreams

Many air-conditioning applications require the mixing of two airstreams. This is particularly true
for large buildings, most production and process plants, and hospitals, which require that the
conditioned air be mixed with a certain fraction of fresh outside air before it is routed into the
living space. The heat transfer with the surroundings is usually small, and thus the mixing
processes can be assumed adiabatic. Mixing processes normally involve no work interactions, and
the changes in kinetic and potential energies, if any, are negligible. Then the mass and energy
balances for the adiabatic mixing of two airstreams reduce to:

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
Eliminating ma3 from the relations above, we obtain:

When two airstreams at states 1 and 2 are mixed adiabatically, the state of the mixture lies
on the straight line connecting the two states.

Note:
When two airstreams at two different states (states 1 and 2) are mixed adiabatically, the state of
the mixture (state 3) lies on the straight line connecting states 1 and 2 on the psychrometric chart,
and the ratio of the distances 2-3 and 3-1 is equal to the ratio of mass flowrates ma1 and ma2.
Review Problem No. 6 Mixing of Conditioned Air with Outdoor Air

Saturated air leaving the cooling section of an air-conditioning system at 14°C at a rate of 50
m3/min is mixed adiabatically with the outside air at 32°C and 60 percent relative humidity at a
rate of 20 m³/min. Assuming that the mixing process occurs at a pressure of 1 atm, determine the
specific humidity, the relative humidity, the dry-bulb temperature, and the volume flow rate of the
mixture.
.

f. Wet Cooling Towers

Power plants, large air-conditioning systems, and some industries generate large quantities of
waste heat that is often rejected to cooling water from nearby lakes or rivers. In some cases,
however, the cooling water supply is limited or thermal pollution is a serious concern. In such
cases, the waste heat must be rejected to the atmosphere, with cooling water recirculating and
serving as a transport medium for heat transfer between the source and the sink (the atmosphere).
One way of achieving this is with wet cooling towers.
G.P. Gines…. AC 3
A wet cooling tower is essentially a semi enclosed evaporative cooler. An induced-draft
counter-flow wet cooling tower is shown schematically below.

An induced-draft counter flow cooling

tower.
Air is drawn into the tower from the bottom and leaves through the top. Warm water from the
condenser is pumped to the top of the tower and is sprayed into this airstream. The purpose of
spraying is to expose a large surface area of water to the air. As the water droplets fall under the
influence of gravity, a small fraction of water (usually a few percent) evaporates and cools the
remaining water. The temperature and the moisture content of the air increase during this process.
The cooled water collects at the bottom of the tower and is pumped back to the condenser to absorb
additional waste heat. Makeup water must be added to the cycle to replace the water lost by
evaporation and air draft. To minimize water carried away by the air, drift eliminators are installed
in the wet cooling towers above the spray section.

A fan provides the air circulation in the cooling tower and therefore it is classified as a forced-draft
cooling tower. Another popular type of cooling tower is the natural-draft cooling tower, which
looks like a large chimney and works like an ordinary chimney. The air in the tower has a high
water-vapor content, and thus it is lighter than the outside air. Consequently, the light air in the
tower rises, and the heavier outside air fills the vacant space, creating an airflow from the bottom
of the tower to the top. The flow rate of air is controlled by the conditions of the atmospheric air.
Natural-draft cooling towers do not require any external power to induce the air, but they cost a
lot more to build than forced-draft cooling towers. The natural-draft cooling towers are hyperbolic
in profile, shown below and some are over 100 m high. The hyperbolic profile is for greater
structural strength, not for any thermodynamic reason.

Natural Draft Cooling Tower

The idea of a cooling tower started with the spray pond, where the warm water is sprayed into the
air and is cooled by the air as it falls into the pond. Some spray ponds are still in use today. However,

G.P. Gines…. AC 3
they require 25 to 50 times the area of a cooling tower, water loss due to air drift is high, and they
are unprotected against dust and dirt.
We could also dump the waste heat into a still cooling pond, which is a large artificial lake open
to the atmosphere. Heat transfer from the pond surface to the atmosphere is very slow, however,
and we would need about 20 times the area of a spray pond in this case to achieve the same cooling.

A Spray Pond

Review Problem No. 7 Cooling of a Power Plant by a Cooling Tower

Cooling water leaves the condenser of a power plant and enters a wet cooling tower at 35°C at a
rate of 100 kg/s. Water is cooled to 22°C in the cooling tower by air that enters the tower at 1 atm,
20°C, and 60 percent relative humidity and leaves saturated at 30°C. Neglecting the power input
to the fan, determine (a) the volume flow rate of air into the cooling tower and (b) the mass flow
rate of the required makeup water.

III. Problems and Theoretical Questions

1. Determine the masses of dry air and the water vapor contained in a 240-m3 room at 98 kPa,
23°C, and 50 percent relative humidity.
Answers: 273 kg, 2.5 kg
2. At what states on the psychrometric chart are the dry-bulb, wet-bulb, and dew point
temperatures identical?
3. Air enters a heating section at 95 kPa, 12°C, and 30 percent relative humidity at a rate of 6
m³/min, and it leaves at 25°C. Determine (a) the rate of heat transfer in the heating section
and (b) the relative humidity of the air at the exit.
Answers: (a) 91.1 kJ/min, (b) 13.3 percent
4. Air enters a 40-cm-diameter cooling section at 1 atm, 32°C, and 30 percent relative
humidity at 18 m/s. Heat is removed from the air at a rate of 1200 kJ/min. Determine (a)

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 the exit temperature, (b) the exit relative humidity of the air, and (c) the exit velocity.
Answers: (a) 24.4°C, (b) 46.6 percent, (c) 17.6 m/s

5. Air at 1 atm, 15°C, and 60 percent relative humidity is first heated to 20°C in a heating
section and then humidified by introducing water vapor. The air leaves the humidifying
section at 25°C and 65 percent relative humidity. Determine (a) the amount of steam added
to the air, and (b) the amount of heat transfer to the air in the heating section.
Answers: (a) 0.0065 kg H2O/kg dry air, (b) 5.1 kJ/kg dry air
6. Air enters a window air conditioner at 1 atm, 32°C, and 70 percent relative humidity at a
rate of 2 m3/min, and it leaves as saturated air at 15°C. Part of the moisture in the air that
condenses during the process is also removed at 15°C. Determine the rates of heat and
moisture removal from the air.
Answers: 97.7 kJ/min, 0.023 kg/min
7. Two airstreams are mixed steadily and adiabatically. The first stream enters at 32°C and
40 percent relative humidity at a rate of 20 m³/min, while the second stream enters at 12°C
and 90 percent relative humidity at a rate of 25 m³/min. Assuming that the mixing process
occurs at a pressure of 1 atm, determine the specific humidity, the relative humidity, the
dry-bulb temperature, and the volume flow rate of the mixture.
Answers: 0.0096 kg H2O/kg dry air, 63.4 percent, 20.6°C, 45.0 m³/min

8. A wet cooling tower is to cool 60 kg/s of water from 40 to 26°C. Atmospheric air enters
the tower at 1 atm with dry- and wet-bulb temperatures of 22 and 16°C, respectively, and
leaves at 34°C with a relative humidity of 90 percent, determine (a) the volume flow rate
of air into the cooling tower and (b) the mass flow rate of the required makeup water.
Answers: (a) 44.9 m3/s, (b) 1.16 kg/s

G.P. Gines…. AC 3