Lesson 6

Psychrometry
1
The specific objectives of this lecture are to:
1. Define psychrometry and the composition of moist air
2. Discuss the methods used for estimating properties of
moist air
3. Present perfect gas law model for moist air
4. Define important psychrometric properties
5. Present graphical representation of psychrometric
properties on a psychrometric chart
6. Discuss measurement of psychrometric properties
7. Discuss straight-line law as applied to air-water mixtures
8. Discuss the concept of adiabatic saturation and
thermodynamic wet bulb temperature
9. Describe a wet-bulb thermometer
10. Discuss the procedure for calculating psychrometric
properties from measured values of barometric pressure,
dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures
11. Describe a psychrometer and the precautions to be taken
2
while using psychrometers
At the end of the lecture, the student should be
able to:
1. Define psychrometry and atmospheric air
2. Use perfect gas law model and find the total pressure
of air from partial pressures of dry air and water vapor
3. Define and estimate psychrometric properties
4. Draw the schematic of a psychrometric chart
5. Discuss the straight-line law and its usefulness in
psychrometry
6. Explain the concepts of adiabatic saturation and
thermodynamic wet bulb temperature
7. Differentiate between thermodynamic WBT and WBT
as measured by a wet bulb thermometer
8. Estimate various psychrometric properties given any
three independent properties
9. Describe a psychrometer
3
Introduction:
• Atmospheric air makes up the environment in almost
every type of air conditioning system. Hence a
thorough understanding of the properties of
atmospheric air and the ability to analyze various
processes involving air is fundamental to air
conditioning design.
• Psychrometry is the study of the properties of mixtures
of air and water vapor.
• Atmospheric air is a mixture of many gases plus water
vapor and a number of pollutants (Fig. below). The
amount of water vapor and pollutants vary from place
to place.
• The concentration of water vapor and pollutants
decrease with altitude, and above an altitude of about
10 km, atmospheric air consists of only dry air. The
pollutants have to be filtered out before processing the
4
air. Hence, what we process is essentially a mixture of
• Based on the above composition the molecular weight of dry
air is found to be 28.966 and the gas constant R is 287.035
J/kg.K.
• As mentioned before the air to be processed in air conditioning
systems is a mixture of dry air and water vapor.
• While the composition of dry air is constant, the amount of
water vapor present in the air may vary from zero to a
maximum depending upon the temperature and pressure of the
mixture (dry air + water vapor).
• At a given temperature and pressure the dry air can only hold a
certain maximum amount of moisture.
• When the moisture content is maximum, then the air is known
as saturated air, which is established by a neutral equilibrium
between the moist air and the liquid or solid phases of water.
• For calculation purposes, the molecular weight of water vapor
5
6
Methods for estimating properties of moist air:
• In order to perform air conditioning calculations, it is
essential first to estimate various properties of air.
• It is difficult to estimate the exact property values of
moist air as it is a mixture of several permanent gases
and water vapor. However, moist air up to 3 atm.
pressure is found to obey perfect gas law with accuracy
sufficient for engineering calculations.
• For higher accuracy Goff and Gratch tables can be used
for estimating moist air properties. These tables are
obtained using mixture models based on fundamental
principles of statistical mechanics that take into
account the real gas behavior of dry air and water
vapor. However, these tables are valid for a barometric
pressure of 1 atm. only.
• Even though the calculation procedure is quite
complex, using the mixture models it is possible to
7
estimate moist air properties at other pressures also.
• However, since in most cases the pressures involved are
low, one can apply the perfect gas model to estimate
psychrometric properties.
Basic gas laws for moist air:
• According to the Gibbs-Dalton law for a mixture of perfect
gases, the total pressure exerted by the mixture is equal
to the sum of partial pressures of the constituent gases.
• According to this law, for a homogeneous perfect gas
mixture occupying a volume V and at temperature T, each
constituent gas behaves as though the other gases are
not present (i.e., there is no interaction between the
gases). Each gas obeys perfect gas equation. Hence, the
partial pressures exerted by each gas, p1,p2,p3 … and the
total pressure pt are given by:

• where n1,n2,n3,… are the number of moles of gases 1,2,3,

8
…
• Applying this equation to moist air.

where
p = pt = total barometric pressure
pa = partial pressure of dry air
pv = partial pressure of water
Important psychrometric properties:
• Dry bulb temperature (DBT) is the temperature of the
moist air as measured by a standard thermometer or
other temperature measuring instruments.
• Saturated vapor pressure (psat) is the saturated partial
pressure of water vapor at the dry bulb temperature.
This is readily available in thermodynamic tables and
charts.
• ASHRAE suggests the following regression equation for
saturated vapor pressure of water, which is valid for
9 0
o
• where psat = saturated vapor pressure of water in
kiloPascals
• 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
• Relative humidity (Φ) is defined as the ratio of the mole
fraction of water vapor in moist air to mole fraction of
water vapor in saturated air at the same temperature and
pressure. Using perfect gas equation we can show that:

• Relative humidity is normally expressed as a percentage.

When Φ is 100 percent, the air is saturated.

10
• Humidity ratio (W): The humidity ratio (or specific
humidity) W is the mass of water associated with each
kilogram of dry air. Assuming both water vapor and dry
air to be perfect gases, the humidity ratio is given by:

• Substituting the values of gas constants of water vapor

and air Rv and Ra in the above equation; the humidity
ratio is given by:

• For a given barometric pressure pt, given the DBT, we

can find the saturated vapor pressure psat from the
thermodynamic property tables on steam. Then using
the above equation, we can find the humidity ratio at
saturated conditions, Wsat.
• It is to be noted that, W is a function of both total
11
barometric pressure and vapor pressure of water.
• Dew-point temperature: If unsaturated moist air is cooled
at constant pressure, then the temperature at which the
moisture in the air begins to condense is known as dew-
point temperature (DPT) of air. An approximate equation
for dew-point temperature is given by:

• where Φ is the relative humidity (in fraction). DBT & DPT

are in oC.
• Of course, since from its definition, the dew point
temperature is the saturation temperature corresponding
to the vapor pressure of water vapor, it can be obtained
from steam tables or using Eqn. above.
• Properties such as humidity ratio, enthalpy and specific
volume are based on 1 kg of dry air.
• This is useful as the total mass of moist air in a process
varies by the addition/removal of water vapor, but the
12
mass of dry air remains constant.
• Dry air is assumed to be a perfect gas as its temperature
is high relative to its saturation temperature, and water
vapor is assumed to be a perfect gas because its
pressure is low relative to its saturation pressure.
• Degree of saturation μ: The degree of saturation is the
ratio of the humidity ratio W to the humidity ratio of a
saturated mixture Ws at the same temperature and
pressure, i.e.,

• Enthalpy: The enthalpy of moist air is the sum of the

enthalpy of the dry air and the enthalpy of the water
vapor.
• Enthalpy values are always based on some reference
value. For moist air, the enthalpy of dry air is given a
zero value at 0oC, and for water vapor the enthalpy of
saturated water is taken as zero at 0oC.
13
• The enthalpy of moist air is given by:
• where
cp = specific heat of dry air at constant pressure,
kJ/kg.K
cpw = specific heat of water vapor, kJ/kg.K
t = Dry-bulb temperature of air-vapor mixture, oC
W = Humidity ratio, kg of water vapor/kg of dry
air
ha = enthalpy of dry air at temperature t, kJ/kg
hg = enthalpy of water vapor at temperature t,
kJ/kg
hfg = latent heat of vaporization at 0oC, kJ/kg
• The unit of h is kJ/kg of dry air. Substituting the
approximate values of cp and hg, we obtain:
14
• Humid specific heat: From the equation for enthalpy of moist
air, the humid specific heat of moist air can be written as:

• where
cpm = humid specific heat, kJ/kg.K
cp = specific heat of dry air, kJ/kg.K
cpw = specific heat of water vapor, kJ/kg
W = humidity ratio, kg of water vapor/kg of dry air
• Since the second term in the above equation (w.cpw) is very
small compared to the first term, for all practical purposes,
the humid specific heat of moist air, cpm can be taken as
1.0216 kJ/kg dry air.K
• Specific volume: The specific volume is defined as the
number of cubic meters of moist air per kilogram of dry air.
From perfect gas equation since the volumes occupied by
the individual substances are the same, the specific volume
is also equal to the number of cubic meters of dry air per
15
kilogram of dry air, i.e.,
Psychrometric chart
• A Psychrometric chart graphically represents the
thermodynamic properties of moist air.
• Standard psychrometric charts are bounded by the dry-
bulb temperature line (abscissa) and the vapor pressure
or humidity ratio (ordinate). The Left Hand Side of the
psychrometric chart is bounded by the saturation line.
• Psychrometric charts are readily available for standard
barometric pressure of 101.325 kPa at sea level and for
normal temperatures (0-50oC).
• ASHRAE has also developed psychrometric charts for
other temperatures and barometric pressures (for low
temperatures: -40 to 10oC, high temperatures 10 to
120oC and very high temperatures 100 to 120oC)

16
17
Measurement of psychrometric properties:
• Based on Gibbs’ phase rule, the thermodynamic state
of moist air is uniquely fixed if the barometric pressure
and two other independent properties are known.
• This means that at a given barometric pressure, the
state of moist air can be determined by measuring any
two independent properties.
• One of them could be the dry-bulb temperature (DBT),
as the measurement of this temperature is fairly simple
and accurate.
• The accurate measurement of other independent
parameters such as humidity ratio is very difficult in
practice.
• Since measurement of temperatures is easier, it would
be convenient if the other independent parameter is
also a temperature.
18
• Of course, this could be the dew-point temperature
(DPT), but it is observed that accurate measurement of
dew-point temperature is difficult.
• In this context, a new independent temperature
parameter called the wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is
defined.
• Compared to DPT, it is easier to measure the wet-bulb
temperature of moist air.
• Thus knowing the dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures
from measurements, it is possible to find the other
properties of moist air.
• To understand the concept of wet-bulb temperature, it
is essential to understand the process of combined heat
and mass transfer.

19
Combined heat and mass transfer; the straight line
law
• The straight line law states that “when air is transferring
heat and mass (water) to or from a wetted surface, the
condition of air shown on a psychrometric chart drives
towards the saturation line at the temperature of the
wetted surface”.
• For example, as shown in Fig. below, when warm air
passes over a wetted surface its temperature drops from
1 to 2.
• Also, since the vapor pressure of air at 1 is greater than
the saturated vapor pressure at tw, there will be moisture
transfer from air to water, i.e., the warm air in contact
with cold wetted surface cools and dehumidifies.
• According to the straight line law, the final condition of
air (i.e., 2) lies on a straight line joining 1 with tw on the
saturation line. This is due to the value of unity of the
20
Lewis number.
21
 Psychrometric Processes
The specific objectives of this lecture are to:
1. Introduction to psychrometric processes and their
representation
2. Important psychrometric processes namely, sensible
cooling and heating, cooling and dehumidification,
cooling and humidification, heating and humidification,
chemical dehumidification and mixing of air streams
3. Representation of the above processes on
psychrometric chart and equations for heat and mass
transfer rates
4. Concept of Sensible Heat Factor, By-pass Factor and
apparatus dew point temperature of cooling coils
5. Principle of air washers and various psychrometric
processes that can be performed using air washers
6. Concept of enthalpy potential and its use
22
At the end of the lecture, the student should be
able to:
1. Represent various psychrometric processes on
psychrometric chart
2. Perform calculations for various psychrometric
processes using the psychrometric charts and
equations
3. Define sensible heat factor, by-pass factor, contact
factor and apparatus dew point temperature
4. Describe the principle of an air washer and its practical
use
5. Derive equation for total heat transfer rate in terms of
enthalpy potential and explain the use of enthalpy
potential

23
Introduction:
• In the design and analysis of air conditioning plants, the
fundamental requirement is to identify the various
processes being performed on air.
• Once identified, the processes can be analyzed by
applying the laws of conservation of mass and energy.
• All these processes can be plotted easily on a
psychrometric chart.
• This is very useful for quick visualization and also for
identifying the changes taking place in important
properties such as temperature, humidity ratio,
enthalpy etc.
• The important processes that air undergoes in a typical
air conditioning plant are discussed below.

24
Important psychrometric processes:
• Sensible cooling: During this process, the moisture
content of air remains constant but its temperature
decreases as it flows over a cooling coil.
• For moisture content to remain constant, the surface of
the cooling coil should be dry and its surface
temperature should be greater than the dew point
temperature of air.
• If the cooling coil is 100% effective, then the exit
temperature of air will be equal to the coil temperature.
However, in practice, the exit air temperature will be
higher than the cooling coil temperature.
• Figure below shows the sensible cooling process O-A on
a psychrometric chart. The heat transfer rate during
this process is given by:

25
26
• Sensible heating (Process O-B): During this process, the
moisture content of air remains constant and its
temperature increases as it flows over a heating coil.
The heat transfer rate during this process is given by:

• where c pm is the humid specific heat (≈1.0216 kJ/kg dry

air) and ma is the mass flow rate of dry air (kg/s). Figure
below shows the sensible heating process on a
psychrometric chart.

27
• Cooling and dehumidification (Process O-C): When
moist air is cooled below its dew-point by bringing it in
contact with a cold surface as shown in Fig. below,
some of the water vapor in the air condenses and
leaves the air stream as liquid, as a result both the
temperature and humidity ratio of air decreases as
shown.
• This is the process air undergoes in a typical air
conditioning system.
• Although the actual process path will vary depending
upon the type of cold surface, the surface temperature,
and flow conditions, for simplicity the process line is
assumed to be a straight line.
• The heat and mass transfer rates can be expressed in
terms of the initial and final conditions by applying the
conservation of mass and conservation of energy
equations as given below:
28
• By applying mass balance for the water:
• By applying energy balance:
• from the above two equations, the load on the cooling
coil, Q is given by:
• The 2nd term on the RHS of the above equation is
normally small compared to the other terms, so it can
be neglected. Hence,
29
• It can be observed that the cooling and de-humidification
process involves both latent and sensible heat transfer
processes, hence, the total, latent and sensible heat
transfer rates (Qt, Ql and Qs) can be written as:

• By separating the total heat transfer rate from the cooling

coil into sensible and latent heat transfer rates, a useful
parameter called Sensible Heat Factor (SHF) is defined. SHF
is defined as the ratio of sensible to total heat transfer rate,
i.e.,
• From the above equation, one can deduce that a SHF of 1.0
corresponds to no latent heat transfer and a SHF of 0
corresponds to no sensible heat transfer.
• A SHF of 0.75 to 0.80 is quite common in air conditioning
systems in a normal dry-climate. A lower value of SHF, say
0.6, implies a high latent heat load such as that occurs 30in a
• From Fig. above, it can be seen that the slope of the
process line O-C is given by:
• From the definition of SHF,

• From the above equations, we can write the slope as:

• Thus we can see that the slope of the cooling and de-
humidification line is purely a function of the sensible heat
factor, SHF.
• Hence, we can draw the cooling and de-humidification line
on psychrometric chart if the initial state and the SHF are
known.
• In some standard psychrometric charts, a protractor with
different values of SHF is provided. The process line is
drawn through the initial state point and in parallel to31the
• In Fig. above, the temperature Ts is the effective surface
temperature of the cooling coil, and is known as
apparatus dew-point (ADP) temperature.
• In an ideal situation, when all the air comes in perfect
contact with the cooling coil surface, then the exit
temperature of air will be same as ADP of the coil.
However, in actual case the exit temperature of air will
always be greater than the apparatus dew-point
temperature due to boundary layer development as air
flows over the cooling coil surface and also due to
temperature variation along the fins etc. Hence, we 32can
• It can be easily seen that, higher the by-pass factor
larger will be the difference between air outlet
temperature and the cooling coil temperature.
• When BPF is 1.0, all the air by-passes the coil and there
will not be any cooling or de-humidification.
• In practice, the by-pass factor can be increased by
increasing the number of rows in a cooling coil or by
decreasing the air velocity or by reducing the fin pitch.
• Alternatively, a contact factor(CF) can be defined which
is given by:
• Heating and Humidification (Process O-D): During
winter it is essential to heat and humidify the room air
for comfort.
• As shown in Fig. below, this is normally done by first
sensibly heating the air and then adding water vapor to
the air stream through steam nozzles as shown in the
figure. 33
• Mass balance of water vapor for the control volume
yields the rate at which steam has to be added, i.e., mw:

• where m a is the mass flow rate of dry air.

• From energy balance: 34
• where Q his the heat supplied through the heating coil
and hw is the enthalpy of steam.
• Since this process also involves simultaneous heat and
mass transfer, we can define a sensible heat factor for
the process in a way similar to that of a cooling and
dehumidification process.
• Cooling & humidification (Process O-E):
• As the name implies, during this process, the air
temperature drops and its humidity increases. This
process is shown in Fig. below.
• As shown in the figure, this can be achieved by
spraying cool water in the air stream. The temperature
of water should be lower than the dry-bulb temperature
of air but higher than its dew-point temperature to
avoid condensation (TDPT < Tw < TO).

35
• It can be seen that during this process there is sensible heat transfer from air
to water and latent heat transfer from water to air. Hence, the total heat
transfer depends upon the water temperature.
• If the temperature of the water sprayed is equal to the wet-bulb temperature
of air (WBT), then the net transfer rate will be zero as the sensible heat
transfer from air to water will be equal to latent heat transfer from water to
air.
• If the water temperature is greater than WBT, then there will be a net heat
transfer from water to air.
• If the water temperature is less than WBT, then the net heat transfer will be
from air to water. Under a special case when the spray water is entirely
recirculated and is neither heated nor cooled, the system is perfectly
insulated and the make-up water is supplied at WBT, then at steady-state,
the air undergoes an adiabatic saturation process, during which its 36WBT
• Heating and de-humidification (Process O-F):
• This process can be achieved by using a hygroscopic
material, which absorbs or adsorbs the water vapor
from the moisture.
• If this process is thermally isolated, then the enthalpy
of air remains constant, as a result the temperature of
air increases as its moisture content decreases as
shown in Fig. below.
• This hygroscopic material can be a solid or a liquid. In
general, the absorption of water by the hygroscopic
material is an exothermic reaction, as a result heat is
released during this process, which is transferred to air
and the enthalpy of air increases.

37
• Mixing of air streams:
• Mixing of air streams at different states is commonly
encountered in many processes, including in air conditioning.
Depending upon the state of the individual streams, the mixing
process can take place with or without condensation of moisture.
i. Without condensation: Figure below shows an adiabatic mixing
of two moist air streams during which no condensation of
moisture takes place. As shown in the figure, when two air
streams at state points 1 and 2 mix, the resulting mixture
condition 3 can be obtained from mass and energy balance.
38
• From the mass balance of dry air and water vapor:

• From energy balance:

• From the above equations, it can be observed that the
final enthalpy and humidity ratio of mixture are
weighted averages of inlet enthalpies and humidity
ratios.
• A generally valid approximation is that the final
temperature of the mixture is the weighted average of
the inlet temperatures. With this approximation, the
point on the psychrometric chart representing the
mixture lies on a straight line connecting the two inlet
states.
• Hence, the ratio of distances on the line, i.e., (1-3)/(2-
3) is equal to the ratio of flow rates ma,2/ma,1.
• The resulting error (due to the assumption that the
humid specific heats being constant) is usually 39less
ii. Mixing with condensation:
• As shown in Fig. below, when very cold and dry air mixes with warm
air at high relative humidity, the resulting mixture condition may lie in
the two-phase region, as a result there will be condensation of water
vapor and some amount of water will leave the system as liquid water.
Due to this, the humidity ratio of the resulting mixture (point 3) will be
less than that at point 4.
• Corresponding to this will be an increase in temperature of air due to
the release of latent heat of condensation. This process rarely occurs
in an air conditioning system, but this is the phenomenon which
results in the formation of fog or frost (if the mixture temperature is
below 0oC). This happens in winter when the cold air near the earth
mixes with the humid and warm air, which develops towards40 the
• Air Washers:
• An air washer is a device for conditioning air. As shown
in Fig. below, in an air washer air comes in direct
contact with a spray of water and there will be an
exchange of heat and mass (water vapor) between air
and water.
• The outlet condition of air depends upon the
temperature of water sprayed in the air washer. Hence,
by controlling the water temperature externally, it is
possible to control the outlet conditions of air, which
41
• In the air washer, the mean temperature of water
droplets in contact with air decides the direction of heat
and mass transfer. As a consequence of the 2nd law, the
heat transfer between air and water droplets will be in
the direction of decreasing temperature gradient.
Similarly, the mass transfer will be in the direction of
decreasing vapor pressure gradient. For example, 42
A. Cooling and dehumidification: tw < tDPT. Since the exit
enthalpy of air is less than its inlet value, from energy
balance it can be shown that there is a transfer of total
energy from air to water. Hence to continue the
process, water has to be externally cooled. Here both
latent and sensible heat transfers are from air to water.
This is shown by Process O-A in Fig. below.
B. Adiabatic saturation: tw = tWBT. Here the sensible heat
transfer from air to water is exactly equal to latent
heat transfer from water to air. Hence, no external
cooling or heating of water is required. That is this is a
case of pure water recirculation. This is shown by
Process O-B in Fig. below. This the process that takes
place in a perfectly insulated evaporative cooler.

43
C. Cooling and humidification: tDPT < tw < tWBT. Here the
sensible heat transfer is from air to water and latent
heat transfer is from water to air, but the total heat
transfer is from air to water, hence, water has to be
cooled externally. This is shown by Process O-C in Fig.
below.
D. Cooling and humidification: tWBT < tw < tDBT. Here the
sensible heat transfer is from air to water and latent
heat transfer is from water to air, but the total heat
transfer is from water to air, hence, water has to be
heated externally. This is shown by Process O-D in Fig.
below. This is the process that takes place in a cooling
tower. The air stream extracts heat from the hot water
coming from the condenser, and the cooled water is sent
back to the condenser.
E. Heating and humidification: tw > tDBT. Here both sensible
and latent heat transfers are from water to air, hence,
water has to be heated externally. This is shown44 by
• Thus, it can be seen that an air washer works as a year-
round air conditioning system. Though air washer is a
and extremely useful simple device, it is not commonly
used for comfort air conditioning applications due to
concerns about health resulting from bacterial or fungal
growth on the wetted surfaces. However, it can be used
in industrial applications.

45
Enthalpy potential:
• As shown in case of an air washer, whenever water (or
a wetted surface) and air contact each other, there is
possibility of heat and moisture transfer between them.
• The directions of heat and moisture transfer depend
upon the temperature and vapor pressure differences
between air and water.
• As a result, the direction of the total heat transfer rate,
which is a sum of sensible heat transfer and latent heat
transfers also depends upon water and air conditions.
• The concept of enthalpy potential is very useful in
quantifying the total heat transfer in these processes
and its direction.
• The sensible (Qs) and latent (QL) heat transfer rates are
given by:

46
• the total heat transfer QT is given by:

• where
ta = dry-bulb temperature of air, oC
ti = temperature of water/wetted surface, oC
w a = humidity ratio of air, kg/kg
wi= humidity ratio of saturated air at ti, kg/kg
hc = convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m2.oC
hD = convective mass transfer coefficient, kg/m2
hfg = latent heat of vaporization, J/kg
• Since the transport mechanism that controls the
convective heat transfer between air and water also
controls the moisture transfer between air and water,
there exists a relation between heat and mass transfer
coefficients, hc and hD as discussed in an earlier chapter.
47
It has been shown that for air-water vapor mixtures,
• where c pm is the humid specific heat ≈ 1.0216 kJ/kg.K.
• Hence the total heat transfer is given by:

• by manipulating the term in the parenthesis of RHS, it

can be shown that:

48
• thus the total heat transfer and its direction depends
upon the enthalpy difference (or potential) between
water and air (hi-ha).
 if hi> ha; then the total heat transfer is from water to air
and water gets cooled
 if hi< ha; then the total heat transfer is from air to water
and water gets heated
 if hi= ha; then the net heat transfer is zero, i.e., the
sensible heat transfer rate is equal to but in the
opposite direction of latent heat transfer. Temperature
of water remains at its wet bulb temperature value.
• The concept of enthalpy potential is very useful in
psychrometric calculations and is frequently used in the
design and analysis of evaporative coolers, cooling
towers, air washers etc.

49
Example
• Moist air at 1 atm. pressure has a dry bulb temperature
of 32oC and a wet bulb temperature of 26oC.
• Calculate
a. the partial pressure of water vapor,
b. humidity ratio,
c. relative humidity,
d. dew point temperature,
e. density of dry air in the mixture,
f. density of water vapor in the mixture and
g. enthalpy of moist air using perfect gas law
model and psychrometric equations.

50
Solution
a. Using modified Apjohn equation and the values of DBT,
WBT and barometric pressure, the vapor pressure is found
to be:
pv = 2.956 kPa (Ans.)
b. The humidity ratio W is given by:
W = 0.622 x 2.956/(101.325-2.956) = 0.0187 kgw/kgda
(Ans.)
c. Relative humidity RH is given by:
RH = (pv/ps) x 100 = (pv/saturation pressure at 32oC)
x 100
• From steam tables, the saturation pressure of water at
32oC is 4.7552 kPa, hence,
RH = (2.956/4.7552) x 100 = 62.16% (Ans.)
d. Dew point temperature is the saturation temperature of
steam at 2.956 kPa. Hence using steam tables we find
that:
51
DPT = T (2.956 kPa) = 23.8 Co
(Ans.)
e. Density of dry air and water vapor
• Applying perfect gas law to dry air:
• Density of dry air
ρa =(pa/RaT)=(pt−pv)/RaT
= (101.325−2.956)/(287.035 x 305)x103
= 1.1236 kg/m3 of dry air
(Ans.)
f. Similarly the density of water vapor in air is obtained
using perfect gas law as:
• Density of water vapor
ρv = (pv/RvT) = 2.956 x 103/(461.52 x 305)
= 0.021 kg/m3 (Ans.)
g. Enthalpy of moist air is found from the equation:
h = 1.005 x t+W(2501+1.88 x t)
= 1.005 x 32 + 0.0187(2501+1.88 X 32)
h= 80.05 kJ/kg of dry air (Ans.)
52
• On a particular day the weather forecast states that the
dry bulb temperature is 37oC, while the relative
humidity is 50% and the barometric pressure is 101.325
kPa. Find the humidity ratio, dew point temperature and
enthalpy of moist air on this day.
Solution
• At 37oC the saturation pressure (ps) of water vapor is
obtained from steam tables as 6.2795 kPa.
• Since the relative humidity is 50%, the vapor pressure of
water in air (pv) is: pv = 0.5 x ps = 0.5 x 6.2795 = 3.13975
kPa
• the humidity ratio W is given by:
• W = 0.622 x pv/(pt−pv) = 0.622 x
3.13975/(101.325−3.13975) = 0.01989 kgw/kgda
(Ans.)
• The enthalpy of air (h) is given by the equation:
• h = 1.005t+W(2501+1.88t) = 1.005 x
37+0.01989(2501+1.88 x 37) = 88.31 kJ/kgda 53
 Inside And
Outside Design
Conditions
54
The specific objectives of this lecture are to:
1. Describe a typical air conditioning system and discuss the
need for fixing suitable indoor and outdoor design
conditions
2. Discuss the criteria used for selecting inside design
conditions
3. Define thermal comfort, metabolic rate and response of
human beings to variation in body temperature
4. Present heat balance equation, equations for convective,
radiative and evaporative losses from the skin, metabolic
rates for various types of activities and discuss the thermo-
regulatory mechanism used by human body to fight against
heat and cold
5. Discuss the factors affecting thermal comfort
6. Discuss the various thermal indices used for evaluating
indoor environment and present ASHRAE comfort chart,
recommended inside design conditions and discuss the
concept of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Percent of
People Dissatisfied (PPD) 55
At the end of the lecture, the student should be able to:
1. Explain the need for selecting design inside and outside
conditions with respect to a typical air conditioning system
2. Define thermal comfort, metabolism, metabolic rate and
discuss the effects of variation in body temperatures on
human beings
3. Write the heat balance and heat transfer equations from a
human body and using these equations, estimate various
heat transfer rates
4. List the factors affecting thermal comfort
5. Define the various thermal indices used in evaluating indoor
environment
6. Draw the ASHRAE comfort chart and mark the comfort zones
for summer and winter conditions
7. Select suitable indoor design conditions based on comfort
criteria
8. Define PMV and PPD and explain their significance
9. Explain the method followed for selecting suitable outside
56
design conditions
Introduction:
• Design and analysis of air conditioning systems
involves:-
 selection of suitable inside and outside design
conditions,
 estimation of the required capacity of cooling or
heating equipment,
 selection of suitable cooling/heating system,
 selecting supply conditions,
 design of air transmission and distribution systems etc.
 Generally, the inputs are the building specifications and
its usage pattern and any other special requirements.
• Figure below shows the schematic of a basic summer
air conditioning system. As shown in the figure, under a
typical summer condition, the building gains sensible
and latent heats from the surroundings and also due to
internal heat sources (RSH and RLH). 57
• The supply air to the building extracts the building heat
gains from the conditioned space.
• These heat gains along with other heat gains due to
ventilation, return ducts etc. have to be extracted from
the air stream by the cooling coil, so that air at required
cold and dry condition can be supplied to the building to
complete the cycle.
• In general, the sensible and latent heat transfer rates
(GSH and GLH) on the cooling coil are larger than the
building heat gains due to the need for ventilation and
return duct losses.
• To estimate the required cooling capacity of the cooling
coil (GTH), it is essential to estimate the building and
other heat gains.
• The building heat gains depend on the type of the
building, outside conditions and the required inside
conditions. Hence selection of suitable inside and outside
design conditions is an important step in the design 58and
59
Selection of inside design conditions:
• The required inside design conditions depend on the
intended use of the building.
• Air conditioning is required either for :-
 providing suitable comfort conditions for the occupants
(e.g. comfort air conditioning), or
 providing suitable conditions for storage of perishable
products (e.g. in cold storages) or
 conditions for a process to take place or for products to
be manufactured (e.g. industrial air conditioning).
• The required inside conditions for cold storage and
industrial air conditioning applications vary widely
depending on the specific requirement. However, the
required inside conditions for comfort air conditioning
systems remain practically same irrespective of the
size, type, location, use of the air conditioning building
etc., as this is related to the thermal comfort of 60the
Thermal comfort:
• Thermal comfort is defined as “that condition of mind
which expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment”. This condition is also some times called as
“neutral condition”, though in a strict sense, they are not
necessarily same.
• A living human body may be likened to a heat engine in
which the chemical energy contained in the food it
consumes is continuously converted into work and heat.
• The process of conversion of chemical energy contained
in food into heat and work is called as “metabolism”. The
rate at which the chemical energy is converted into heat
and work is called as “metabolic rate”.
• Knowledge of metabolic rate of the occupants is required
as this forms a part of the cooling load of the air
conditioned building.
• Similar to a heat engine, one can define thermal efficiency
of a human being as the ratio of useful work output to61the
• The thermal efficiency of a human being can vary from 0% to
as high as 15-20% for a short duration. By the manner in
which the work is defined, for most of the light activities the
useful work output of human beings is zero, indicating a
thermal efficiency of 0%.
• Irrespective of the work output, a human body continuously
generates heat at a rate varying from about 100 W (e.g. for a
sedentary person) to as high as 2000 W (e.g. a person doing
strenuous exercise).
• Continuous heat generation is essential, as the temperature
of the human body has to be maintained within a narrow
range of temperature, irrespective of the external
surroundings.
• A human body is very sensitive to temperature. The body
temperature must be maintained within a narrow range to
avoid discomfort, and within a somewhat wider range, to
avoid danger from heat or cold stress. Studies show that at
neutral condition, the temperatures should be:
» Skin temperature, tskin ≈ 33.7oC 62
o
• At other temperatures, the body will feel discomfort or
it may even become lethal. It is observed that when the
core temperature is between 35 to 39oC, the body
experiences only a mild discomfort. When the
temperature is lower than 35oC or higher than 39oC,
then people suffer major loss in efficiency. It becomes
lethal when the temperature falls below 31oC or rises
above 43oC. This is shown in Fig. below.

63
Heat balance equation for a human being:
• The temperature of human body depends upon the
energy balance between itself and the surrounding
thermal environment. Taking the human body as the
control volume, one can write the thermal energy
(heat) balance equation for the human body as:

• where
Qgen = Rate at which heat is generated inside the body
Qsk = Total heat transfer rate from the skin
Qres = Heat transfer rate due to respiration, and
Qst = Rate at which heat is stored inside the body
• The heat generation rate Qgen is given by:

• where
M = Metabolic rate, and
64
η = Thermal efficiency ≈ 0 for most of the activities
• The metabolic rate depends on the activity. It is
normally measured in the unit “met”.
• A met is defined as the metabolic rate per unit area of a
sedentary person and is found to be equal to about
58.2 W/m2. This is also known as “basal metabolic
rate”.
• Table below shows typical metabolic rates for different
activities:

65
• Studies show that the metabolic rate can be correlated
to the rate of respiratory oxygen consumption and
carbon dioxide production. Based on this empirical
equations have been developed which relate metabolic
rate to O2 consumption and CO2 production.
• Since the metabolic rate is specified per unit area of the
human body (naked body), it is essential to estimate
this area to calculate the total metabolic rate. Even
though the metabolic rate and heat dissipation are not
uniform throughout the body, for calculation purposes
they are assumed to be uniform.
• The human body is considered to be a cylinder with
uniform heat generation and dissipation. The surface
area over which the heat dissipation takes place is
given by an empirical equation, called as Du Bois
Equation. This equation expresses the surface area as a
function of the mass and height of the human being. It
66
is given by:
• where ADu = Surface area of the naked body, m2
m = Mass of the human being, kg
h = Height of the human being, m
• Since the area given by Du Bois equation refers to a
naked body, a correction factor must be applied to take
the clothing into account.
• This correction factor, defined as the “ratio of surface
area with clothes to surface area without clothes” has
been determined for different types of clothing.
• These values are available in ASHRAE handbooks. Thus
from the metabolic rate and the surface area, one can
calculate the amount of heat generation, Qgen.
• The total heat transfer rate from the skin Qsk is given by:

67
• where
Qconv = Heat transfer rate due to convection (sensible
heat)
Qrad = Heat transfer rate due to radiation (sensible heat),
Qevp = Heat transfer rate due to evaporation (latent heat)
• The convective and radiative heat transfers can be positive
or negative, i.e., a body may lose or gain heat by
convection and radiation, while the evaporation heat
transfer is always positive, i.e., a body always looses heat
by evaporation.
• Using the principles of heat and mass transfer, expressions
have been derived for estimating the convective, radiative
and evaporative heat transfer rates from a human body.
• As it can be expected, these heat transfer rates depend on
several factors that influence each of the heat transfer
mechanism.
• According to Belding and Hatch, the convective, radiative
and evaporative heat transfer rates from the naked body 68 of
• In the above equation all the heat transfer rates are in
watts, temperatures are in oC and velocity is in m/s; ps,b and
pv are the saturated pressure of water vapor at surface
temperature of the body and partial pressure of water
vapor in air, respectively, in kPa.
• From the above equations it is clear that the convective
heat transfer from the skin can be increased either by
increasing the surrounding air velocity (V) and/or by
reducing the surrounding air DBT (t).
• The radiative heat transfer rate can be increased by
reducing the temperature of the surrounding surfaces with
which the body exchanges radiation.
• The evaporative heat transfer rate can be increased by
increasing the surrounding air velocity and/or by reducing
the moisture content of surrounding air.
The heat transfer rate due to respiration Q is given by:
• where
Cres = Dry heat loss from respiration (sensible, positive or
negative)
Eres = Evaporative heat loss from respiration (latent, always
positive)
• The air inspired by a human being is at ambient
conditions, while air expired is considered to be
saturated and at a temperature equal to the core
temperature. Significant heat transfer can occur due to
respiration.
• Correlations have been obtained for dry and
evaporative heat losses due to respiration in terms of
metabolic rate, ambient conditions etc.
• For comfort, the rate of heat stored in the body Qst
should be zero, i.e.,
70
• However, it is observed that a human body is rarely at steady
state, as a result the rate of heat stored in the body is non-zero
most of the time.
• Depending upon the surroundings and factors such as activity
level etc., the heat stored is either positive or negative.
However, the body cannot sustain long periods of heat storage
with a consequent change in body temperatures as discussed
before.
• Since the body temperature depends on the heat balance,
which in turn depends on the conditions in the surroundings, it
is important that the surrounding conditions should be such
that the body is able to maintain the thermal equilibrium with
minimum regulatory effort.
• All living beings have in-built body regulatory processes against
cold and heat, which to some extent maintains the body
temperatures when the external conditions are not favorable.
• For example, human beings consist of a thermoregulatory
system, which tries to maintain the body temperature by
initiating certain body regulatory processes against cold and
heat. 71
• When the environment is colder than the neutral zone, then body
loses more heat than is generated. Then the regulatory processes
occur in the following order.
1. Zone of vaso-motor regulation against cold (vaso-constriction):
Blood vessels adjacent to the skin constrict, reducing flow of
blood and transport of heat to the immediate outer surface. The
outer skin tissues act as insulators.
2. Zone of metabolic regulation: If environmental temperature drops
further, then vaso-motor regulation does not provide enough
protection. Hence, through a spontaneous increase of activity and
by shivering, body heat generation is increased to take care of the
increased heat losses.
3. Zone of inevitable body cooling: If the environmental temperature
drops further, then the body is not able to combat cooling of its
tissues. Hence the body temperature drops, which could prove to
be disastrous. This is called as zone of inevitable body cooling.
• When the environment is hotter than the neutral zone, then body
loses less heat than is generated. Then the regulatory processes
occur in the following order.

72
1. Zone of vaso-motor regulation against heat (vaso-dilation): Here
the blood vessels adjacent to the skin dilate, increasing the flow
of blood and transport of heat to the immediate outer surface.
The outer skin temperature increases providing a greater
temperature for heat transfer by convection and radiation.
2. Zone of evaporative regulation: If environmental temperature
increases further, the sweat glands become highly active
drenching the body surface with perspiration. If the surrounding
air humidity and air velocity permit, then increase in body
temperature is prevented by increased evaporation from the skin.
3. Zone of inevitable body heating: If the environmental
temperature increases further, then body temperature increases
leading to the zone of inevitable body heating. The internal body
temperature increases leading several ill effects such as heat
exhaustion (with symptoms of fatigue, headache, dizziness,
irritability etc.), heat cramps (resulting in loss of body salts due to
increased perspiration) and finally heat stroke. Heat stroke could
cause permanent damage to the brain or could even be lethal if
the body temperature exceeds 43oC.

73
• Thus it is seen that even though human body possesses
a regulatory mechanism, beyond certain conditions it
becomes ineffective.
• Hence it is essential to ensure that surrounding
conditions are conducive for comfortable and safe
living.
• The purpose of a comfort air conditioning system is to
provide suitable conditions in the occupied space so
that it is thermally comfortable to the occupants.
• A sedentary person at neutral condition loses about 40
% of heat by evaporation, about 30 % by convection
and 30 % by radiation. However, this proportion may
change with other factors.
• For example, the heat loss by evaporation increases
when the DBT of the environment increases and/or the
activity level increases
74
Factors affecting thermal comfort:
• Thermal comfort is affected by several factors. These are:
1. Physiological factors such as age, activity, sex and health. These
factors influence the metabolic rate. It is observed that of these
factors, the most important is activity. Other factors are found to
have negligible effect on thermal comfort.
2. Insulating factor due to clothing. The type of clothing has strong
influence on the rate of heat transfer from the human body. The unit
for measuring the resistance offered by clothes is called as “clo”.
• 1 clo is equal to a resistance of about 0.155 m 2.K/W. Typical clo
values for different types of clothing have been estimated and are
available in the form of tables. For example, a typical business suit
has a clo value of 1.0, while a pair of shorts has a clo value of about
0.05.
3. Environmental factors. Important factors are the dry bulb
temperature, relative humidity, air motion and surrounding surface
temperature.
• Of these the dry bulb temperature affects heat transfer by
convection and evaporation, the relative humidity affects heat loss
by evaporation, air velocity influences both convective and
evaporative heat transfer and the surrounding surface temperature
75
affects the radiative heat transfer.
• Apart from the above, other factors such as drafts, asymmetrical
cooling or heating, cold or hot floors etc. also affect the thermal
comfort.
• The objective of a comfort air conditioning system is to control
the environmental factors so that comfort conditions prevail in
the occupied space.
• It has no control on the physiological and insulating factors.
However, wearing suitable clothing may help in reducing the
cost of the air conditioning system.
Indices for thermal comfort:
• It is seen that important factors which affect thermal comfort
are the activity, clothing, air DBT, RH, air velocity and
surrounding temperature.
• It should be noted that since so many factors are involved,
many combinations of the above conditions provide comfort.
• Hence to evaluate the effectiveness of the conditioned space,
several comfort indices have been suggested.
• These indices can be divided into direct and derived indices.
• The direct indices are the dry bulb temperature, humidity ratio,
76
air velocity and the mean radiant temperature (Tmrt).
• The mean radiant temperature Tmrt affects the radiative
heat transfer and is defined (in K) as:

• where:
• Tg = Globe temperature measured at steady state by a
thermocouple placed at the center of a black painted,
hollow cylinder (6” dia) kept in the conditioned space, K.
The reading of thermocouple results from a balance of
convective and radiative heat exchanges between the
surroundings and the globe
Ta = Ambient DBT, K
V = Air velocity in m/s, and
C = A constant, 0.247 X 109
• The derived indices combine two or more direct indices
into a single factor.
• Important derived indices are the effective temperature,
operative temperature, heat stress index, Predicted Mean
77
Vote (PMV), Percent of People Dissatisfied (PPD) etc.
Selection of outside design conditions:
• The ambient temperature and moisture content vary from hour-
to-hour and from day-to-day and from place-to-place.
• For example, in summer the ambient temperature increases
from sunrise, reaches a maximum in the afternoon and again
decreases towards the evening.
• On a given day, the relative humidity also varies with
temperature and generally reaches a minimum value when the
ambient temperature is maximum.
• For most of the major locations of the world, meteorological data
is available in the form of mean daily or monthly maximum and
minimum temperatures and corresponding relative humidity or
wet bulb temperature.
• As mentioned before, to estimate the required cooling capacity
of an air conditioning plant, it is essential to fix the outside
design conditions in addition to the inside conditions.
• It is obvious that the selected design conditions may prevail
only for a short a duration, and most of the time the actual
outside conditions will be different from the design values. As a
result, for most of the time the plant will be running at off-design
78
• The design outside conditions also depend on the following factors:
a) Type of the structure, i.e., whether it is of heavy construction,
medium or light
b) Insulation characteristics of the building
c) Area of glass or other transparent surfaces
d) Type of usage
e) Nature of occupancy
f) Daily range (difference between maximum and minimum
temperatures in a given day)
• Outdoor design conditions for summer:
• Selection of maximum dry and wet bulb temperatures at a particular
location leads to excessively large cooling capacities as the maximum
temperature generally persists for only a few hours in a year.
• Hence it is recommended that the outdoor design conditions for
summer be chosen based on the values of dry bulb and mean
coincident wet bulb temperature that is equaled or exceeded 0.4, 1.0
or 2.0 % of total hours in an year.
• These values for major locations in the world are available in data
books, such as AHRAE handbooks. Whether to choose the 0.4 % value
or 1.0 % value or 2.0 % value depends on specific requirements.
• In the absence of any special requirements, the 1.0% or 2% value 79may
Outdoor design conditions for winter:
• Similar to summer, it is not economical to design a
winter air conditioning for the worst condition on record
as this would give rise to very high heating capacities.
• Hence it is recommended that the outdoor design
conditions for winter be chosen based on the values of
dry bulb temperature that is equaled or exceeded 99.6
or 99.0 % of total hours in an year.
• Similar to summer design conditions, these values for
major locations in the world are available in data books,
such as AHRAE handbooks.
• Generally the 99.0% value is adequate, but if the
building is made of light-weight materials, poorly
insulated or has considerable glass or space
temperature is critical, then the 99.6% value is
recommended.
80