DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, LNCT BHOPAL

MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCE LAB (CM – 404)

LAKSHMI NARAIN COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, BHOPAL

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
B.E. (III SEMESTER)
MATERIAL & ENERGY BALANCE LAB (CM – 304)

EXPERIMENT :

AIM OF EXPERIMENT: Application of Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometer to Find

Out Atmospheric Humidity.

REQUIREMENTS:

APPARATUS: Dry and wet bulb thermometer

THEORY:

The rates at which mass and heat are transferred between gas and liquid
not in equilibrium are very important. A useful quantity depending on both
of these rates is wet bulb temperature.

The wet bulb temperature is the study state temperature reached

by a small amount of liquid evaporating into a large amount of
unsaturated vapour.The mass of liquid is very small in comparison with the
gas phase that is only negligible change in the properties of gas phase
and the effect of process is confined to the liquid.

At the wet bulb temperature the rate of heat transfer from gas to
the liquid may be equated to product of rate of vaporization and the sum
of latent heat of vaporization and sensible heat of vapor. Since radiation
may be neglected, this balance may be written.

Q = MAN A [λW+ CPA (T-TW)]

Where
Q = rate of sensible heat transfer to liquid.
MA= Mass of vapor
NA = molar rate of vaporization
λW = latent heat of liquid at wet bulb temperature TW.

The rate of heat transfer may be expressed in terms of area, the

temperature drop and the heat transfer coefficient in the usual way, or
Q = hG (T-Ti) A

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 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, LNCT BHOPAL
MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCE LAB (CM – 404)

Where hG= heat transfer coefficient between gas and surface of liquid
Ti = temperature at interface
A = surface area of liquid

PRINCIPLE OF WET BULB THERMOMETER:

A thermometer, or an equivalent temperature, measuring device

such as a thermocouple is covered by wick, which is saturated with pure
liquid and immersed in a stream of gas having a definite temperature T
and humidity H. Assume that initially the temperature of liquid is about
that of gas. Since the gas is not saturated, liquid evaporators and
because the process is adiabatic, the latent heat is supplied at first by
cooling liquid. As the temperature of liquid decreases below that of the
gas, sensible heat is transferred to liquid. Ultimately a steady state is
reached at at such a liquid temperature that the heat needed to
evaporate the liquid and heat the vapor to gas temperature is exactly
balance by the sensible heat flowing from the gas to the liquid. It is the
steady stat temperature denoted by TW that is called the wet bulb
temperatures. It Is the Function of Both T and H.

WET BULB TEMPERATURE:

Superficially resembles the adiabatic saturation temperature TS.

Indeed, for air water mixture the two temperatures are nearly equal. This is
fortuitous, however, and is not true of mixtures other than air and water.
The wet bulb temperature differs fundamentally from adiabatic saturation
temperature. In the later temperature and humidity of gas vary during the
process, and the end point is a true equilibrium, rather than a dynamic
steady state.

DRY BULB TEMPERATURE:

When we use an uncovered thermometer along with the wet bulb

to measure T, the actual gas temperature and then gas temperature is
usually called the dry bulb temperature

MEASUREMENT OF HUMIDITY: -

Psychometric line and Lewis relations for a given wet bulb temperature
equation

Y’ – Y’W / T – TW = - hG /MBKYλW = - CP / λW (NSC/NPR) M

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 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, LNCT BHOPAL
MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCE LAB (CM – 404)

Can be plotted on the humidity chart as a straight line having a slope of -

hy /MBKYλW and intersecting the 100% line at TW. This line is called the
psychometric line.
1. Determine simultaneously the wet bulb and dry bulb temperature.
2. Now refer the humidity chart given.
3. From the reading of wet bulb and dry bulb temperature the
humidity is found by locating the psychometric line intersecting the
saturation line at the observed wet bulb temperature and following
the psychometric line to its intersection with ordinate of the
observed dry bulb temperature.