Introduction to air conditioning

 Introduction to Air Conditioning

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 vapour. 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. The concentration of water vapour 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 air. Hence, what we process is essentially a mixture of various gases that constitute air and water vapour. This mixture is known as moist air. The moist air can be thought of as a mixture of dry air and moisture. For all practical purposes, the composition of dry air can be considered as constant. In 1949, a standard composition of dry air was fixed by the International Joint Committee on Psychrometric data. It is given in .

 




Table 4.1: Composition of standard air

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 vapour. While the composition of dry air is constant, the amount of water vapour present in the air may vary from zero to a maximum depending upon the temperature and pressure of the mixture (dry air + water vapour). 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 vapour is taken as 18.015 and its gas

constant is 461 •Ä

Dry bulb temperature (DBT) is the temperature of the moist air as measured by a standard thermometer or other temperature measuring instruments. Saturated vapour pressure (psat) is the saturated partial pressure of water vapour at the dry bulb temperature. This is readily available in thermodynamic tables and charts. ASHRA Esuggests the following regression equation for saturated vapour pressure of water, which is valid for O to 1000C.

Relative humidity is defined as the ratio of the mole fraction of water vapour in moist air to mole fraction of water vapour in saturated air at the same temperature and pressure. Relative humidity is normally expressed as a percentage. When is 100 percent, the air is saturated.

Humidity ratio (W): The humidity ratio (or specific humidity) W is the mass of water associated with each kilogram of dry air l. Assuming both water vapour and dry air to be perfect gases .

For a given barometric pressure pt. given the DBT, we can find the saturated vapour 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 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:

Degree of saturation : 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,

Enthalpy: The enthalpy of moist air is the sum of the enthalpy of the dry air and the enthalpy of the water vapour. Enthalpy values are always based on some reference value. For moist air, the enthalpy of dry air is given a zero value at OOC, and for water vapour the enthalpy of saturated water is taken as zero at OOC.

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 p kilogram of dry air. From perfect gas equation since the volumes occupied by the individual substance are the same, the specific volume is also equal to the number of cubic meters of dry air per kilogram o dry air .



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