Psychrometrics Problem #1

Psychrometric Problem #1
(Mixed Air Temperature)
Problem
2000 CFM of outside air is entering a mixing box at 50 F Dry Bulb/42 F
Wet Bulb and mixes with the 9000 CFM of return air which is at 80 F Dry
Bulb/70 F Wet Bulb
What is the resulting mixed air dry bulb and wet bulb temperature?
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Solution
First you need to plot both points on a Psychrometric Chart
Then specific volume for each temperature is needed.
This is done by marking both points on a psychrometric chart, then
reading the value on the Specific Volume Line
Next convert the temperatures into lbs of air per minute.
This is done by dividing the CFM by the specific volume

lbs/min

lbs/min
Next add the two together to get the total weight of air
647.48 + 155.04 =802.52 lbs/min
Next step is to calculate the dry bulb of the mixed air

This is found by using the percentage of return and outside air that is in
the mixed air.
Sine the total weight of the air is now known we can see how much of that
weight is made up by outside air and how much is return air
To do this you need to multiply the original dry bulb temperatures by the
percentage of total weight each air flow is contributing

Next is to add the two partial dry bulb temperatures together and get the
mixed air dry bulb temperature
64.54+9.66=74.2 Dry Bulb
To find the other properties of the mixed air you need to draw a straight
line between the two original temperatures. Then mark when the new
temperature is at.
From this you can read that you are at about a 65.5 WB with about a 65%
Relative Humidity
There is also a quicker way to approximate the temperature by using the
CFM

The problem with this method is it is not as accurate

You can use whichever method you like. Just beware when you are taking
the exam and there and answers that are really close together.

Flow Rate Through the Condenser

Problem
A water cooled chiller uses R-134a as a refrigerant. The refrigerant flow
rate through the condenser is 100,000 lbm/hr with the entering pressure
of 100 PSIA and leaves the condenser at a temperature of 80 F and is a
saturated liquid. The refrigerant then passes through the evaporator and
leaves as a gas at 10 F . Water from a cooling tower is used to absorb the
heat given off by the condenser. The cooling tower water enters the
condenser at 75 F and leaves at 98 F.The Coefficient of Performance for
this chiller is 4.0. What is the flow rate in gpm of the cooling tower water?

Solution
This problem requires a little bit of knowledge about the Vapor
Compression Refrigeration Cycle. The way I find that is easiest to solve
these is to set up a table for the set points you have been given. This way
you can see which points you are missing still. I have created a vapor
compression refrigeration cycle cheat sheet to help
To find the flow rate of the condenser water we need to find the total heat
rejected to the condenser water which is the sum of the refrigeration and
work done by the pump.

First we look at the equation for the Coefficient of Performance (COP)

Since we only have the COP we will stat by calculating the heat absorbed
by the evaporator by using the following equations.

The problem states that the refrigerant passes through the evaporator at
10 F and leaves as a gas, the enthalpy for h1 can be found.

h1 = 168.06 btu/lbm
The next clue we have is that the refrigerant leaves the condenser as a
liquid at 80 F. Since the refrigerant is not sub-cooled we can find the
pressure. The evaporation process is isothermal so with the pressure and
temperature we can find the enthalpy for h4
h4 = 101.88 btu/lbm
The mass flow rate is given in the problem.

Now putting it all together gives

Next step is to find the work done by he compressor, which can be done 2
different ways

Now that we know what the heat in (Qin) and work in (Win) are we can find
the heat out (Qout)

Now that we know the heat that would be absorbed by the cooling tower
water we can find the volumetric flow rate by using the following equation

Now to convert from cubic feet per hour to gallons per minute

The mass flow rate of water to the cooling tower is 719 gpm

Using Enthalpy to Calculate Ventilation

Load
Problem
The design conditions for a dining room at a public school are 75 F dry
bulb and 62.5 F wet bulb. Using ASHRAE 62.4 to calculate the outdoor air
requirement, it was calculated that the ventilation requirement for
the dining room would be 1,400 cfm. The temperature outside has a
maximum range of 95 F dry bulb and 81 F wet bulb. What is the
ventilation load the cooling coil will see from the outside air?

Solution
This problem can be solved by using enthalpy. The ventilation load can
be calculated by by using the difference between the enthalpy of the
leaving air and enthalpy of the entering airs.
You will also need to convert the entering air speed from feet per minute
to feet per hour. This is done by multiplying the air speed by 60

h2 is the enthalpy of the outside air, which is 44.5 btu/lb

h1 is the enthalpy of the air leaving the cooling coil, which is 23.1 btu/lb
V is 1400 cfm
is the average density is 0.075 lbm/ft3

The ventilation load is 134,820 btu per hour or about 11.3 tons

Sensible Heat Ratio

Problem
An air handler has a 2 1/2 diameter chilled water branch piping that
supplies water to a 72 x 48 cooling coil that has 5/8 copper tubes. The
return air enters the coil at 100 F. The air is then cooled to 60 F. For this
particular coil the maximum allowable face velocity across the cooling coil
is 450 fpm
The sensible heat ratio for this coil was given as 0.87.
What is the total cooling load on the cooling coil?

Solution
Sine this problem has no dehumidification or humidification we can solve
the problem using the sensible heat ratio (SHR).
The sensible heat ratio is the percentage of sensible heat divided by the
total heat load.

From what the problem tells us, we can get the sensible load, which is the
cooling load across the coil,

First we need to find the volumetric flow rate (cfm)

With the volumetric flow rate know we can solve for the sensible load

The sensible load is 466,560 btuh

Now we can use the SHR and the sensible load to determine the total heat
load

The total load seen by the coil is 536 MBTUH