Concept of humidity

Humidity ratio is a characteristic describes the moisture holding capacity of the air. However,
there is no universal way to measure the humidity ratio. The value of humidity ratio could be
H2 O
very small which ranged from 0 to 0.044319 lb for saturated air at 100 Fahrenheit db
dry air
(Richard, no date).

Next, wet bulb temperature is commonly used in determining the relative humidity of a cooling
tower. The relative humidity is calculated by comparing the temperature of a dry thermometer
with the wet bulb temperature. Wet bulb thermometer has water placed at the bottom part as
to inspect the temperature while having water evaporates into the air. The temperature of dry
thermometer and wet bulb are different in normal situation, they will eventually reach the same
reading when 100% relative humidity is achieved. A 100% relative humidity indicates that the air
is no longer available to accept any more water molecules as it has become saturated. For the
record, the lower the temperature of a wet bulb thermometer, the lower the relative humidity
of the inspected air. A low relative humidity promises a larger amount of heat could be
transferred away.

The partial pressure of water vapour can be obtained as a function of the dry-bulb and wet-bulb
temperature and the relative humidity from its definition (Howard and Wang, 2021):

Pw
ϕ=
Pws T db

Where Pw is the partial pressure of water vapour and P ws is the saturation pressure of water vapour
at te air dry-bulb temperature Tdb. Next, by applying the water vapour pressure, the humidity ratio is
found to be the following.

Pw
W =0.622
P−P w

Where P is the total pressure of the moist air. Next, the saturation pressure of water vapour
at the dewpoint temperature, Td is equal to the following equation:
Pw =P ws (Td )

The relative humidity can then be calculated by substituting this equation into the previous
one. By recalling the basis of definition, the humidity ratio can be found as:
mw
W=
ma
Where the mw and ma are masses of water and dry air respectively. The relative humidity can
be further determined by using the combined equation which:
P
ϕ=
0.622
(1+ )Pws T db
W

Relative humidity is ranged from 0 to 1 for dry air to saturated air. The air enthalpy of air is
expressed in terms of the combination of dry air and water vapour. The amount of water vapour is
the only changes in common practical application and the volume of dry air is constant. Thus, the
total enthalpy of atmospheric air as used in the cooling tower will be the sum of the enthalpies of
dry air and water vapour (Cengel, 2013):

H=H a+ H w ¿ ma ha +mw hw

By dividing ma, the equation above will lead to:

mw
h=ha + h ¿ h + ω hw
ma w a

Energy balance suggest that:

ma 1 ha 1+ m w3 h w3 =m a 2 h a2 +mw 4 h w 4

Next, by given that ha = cp∆T and hw = ωs x hfg@wet bulb, the following equation could be derived by
applying the liquid-to-gas ratio such that:

C p mw 3 t 3 +ma ha 1=C p mw 4 t 4 + ma h a 2

By utilising the fact that range = tw2 – tw1 where it is the different between inlet and outlet cooling
water temperature, hereby the following equation could be obtained:

mw
h a2 =ha 1 + ¿tw2 – tw1)
ma

Lastly, the final equation of relative humidity could be obtained:

C p ( T outlet −T inlet ) + w2 hfg 2

w 1=
hg 1 −hf 2
For w2, relative humidity can be expressed as:

P v V / Rv T Pv
ϕ= ¿
Pg /R v T Pg

Where Pg is the saturated pressure at certain temperature. Therefore, the relative humidity
can also be written as following based on equation 1.1, which P is the atmosphere pressure:
0.622 ϕ P g2
w 2=
P−ϕ P g 2

Finally, the equation below can be found:

w1 P
ϕ=
(0.622+w1 )P g 1