PSYCHROMETRY

AND
PSYCHROMETRIC Chart

Dr. Mohammed Osama El-Samadony

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Power,
Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University
Definition of Air Conditioning:
Air conditioning is defined as the the process of treating air so as to
control simultaneously 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
Temperature control systems are:temperature is controlled
- Room
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 solely 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 505%
Air velocity of about 0.15-0.2 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 .)
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 makes up the
environment in almost every type of
air conditioning system. Atmospheric
air is a mixture of many gases plus
water vapour and a number of
pollutants.
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. H
ence, what we process is essentially a
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
 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
 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.
 MOISTURE CONTENT / HUMIDITY
RATIO
MOISTURE CONTENT / MOISTURE
HUMIDITY RATIO () 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 m OF RP VT P R
v
Pv M v
Where,AIR.
DRY P = Pv + Pa w
PV
v v a

ma
a
R aT
Pa Rv Pa M a
18.01 Pv Pv
0.622
28.966 Pa P Pv
 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
per unit mass of moist air.

Following this, air with same amount

of energy 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
 Relation between Humidity Ratio ()
And Relative Humidity ()
P

(0.622 ) Ps
0.622 Ps

P Ps
Ps is readily available in
thermodynamic tables and charts. The difference between specific and
ASHRAE suggests the following relative humidities.
regression equation for saturated
vapour 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
 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 can also be determined
on the psychrometric chart. Each water
molecule in the air exerts pressure on the
surrounding environment. 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
PASCAL
Summary
 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 78F DB
and 65F 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.