Chapter 2

Psychrometry

Prepared by: Beniam G.

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 Introduction

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 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 are illustrated on the psychrometric
chart.
 Notice that simple heating and cooling processes appear as horizontal
lines on this chart since the moisture content of the air remains
constant (w=constant) during these processes.
Air is commonly heated and humidified in winter and cooled and
dehumidified in summer. Notice how these processes appear on the
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 Most air-conditioning processes can be modeled as
steady-flow processes, and thus the mass balance relation
min =m Out can be expressed for dry air and water as:
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Disregarding the kinetic and potential energy changes, the
steady-flow energy balance relation Ein =Eout can be expressed
in this case as:

The work term usually consists of the fan work input, which is
small relative to the other terms in the energy balance relation.
 Next we examine some commonly encountered processes in
air-conditioning.

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 Simple Heating and Cooling (w= 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 (w=
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.

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 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 in Fig.below.
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 (T3 > 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
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 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.
The cooling process with dehumidifying is illustrated
schematically and on the psychrometric chart.
 Hot, moist air enters the cooling section at state 1. As it
passes through the cooling coils, its temperature decreases
and its relative humidity increases at constant specific
humidity.
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  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.
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.
The water vapor that condenses out of the air during this process is
removed from the cooling section through a separate channel.
 The condensate is usually assumed to leave the cooling section at T 2.
The cool, saturated air at state 2 is usually routed directly to the room,
where it mixes with the room air.
In some cases, however, the air at state 2 may be at the right specific
humidity but at a very low temperature.
In such cases, air is passed through a heating section where its temperature
is raised to a more comfortable level before it is routed to the room.
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 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.
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 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 through the use of wet cooling
towers.
A wet cooling tower is essentially a semi-enclosed evaporative
cooler.
 An induced-draft counter-flow wet cooling tower is shown
schematically in:
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 Natural
Forced

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