An MIT Alumni Association Publication

When Air Reaches the Dew Point, What Happens to the Condensation Rate?

  • Kate Repantis
  • slice.mit.edu
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Guest Post by Sarah Jensen from the Ask an Engineer series, published by MIT’s School of Engineering

Photo: Evan Leeson
Photo: Evan Leeson

When Jane Taylor wrote her poem “The Star” in 1806, she probably didn’t consult a psychrometric chart to determine the exact temperature at which dew forms on English lawns. Nonetheless, one version of her lullaby states that the little star twinkles only “When the blazing sun is set / And the grass with dew is wet.” Taylor was correct in suggesting that lower temps are necessary for dew to appear in the yard. The dew point is defined as the atmospheric temperature below which water vapor at a given barometric pressure condenses into liquid. It’s the parameter used by meteorologists—and poets, though they might not know it—to measure the amount of moisture in the air.

The rate of that condensation, however, isn’t affected by lower temperatures, says Prakash Govindan, formerly a postdoctoral associate in MIT’s Mechanical Engineering department. “The question addresses two separate areas of physics, thermodynamics and heat transfer,” he says. The point at which air becomes cool enough that water vapor begins to condense out is indeed the dew point temperature, but, says Govindan, “In order to determine the rate of condensation, all sorts of things must be understood about a region—its geography, climate conditions, air flows, and so on. It is not decided by the dew point.”

Govindan cautions against confusing the dew point with wet-bulb temperature, the temperature of air cooled to saturation—or 100 percent relative humidity—by the evaporation of water into it. “If you spray water from a bottle, much of it will evaporate as it takes the latent heat from the air,” he explains. “The point to which the air cools down is the wet-bulb temperature.” Swimmers are familiar with the concept: Stepping from the ocean onto a windy beach results in a chill as evaporation draws heat from their wet skin and swimsuits. Wet-bulb temperature eventually rises to converge with the dry-bulb temperature, the air temperature as measured by a thermometer completely shielded from moisture. Read more.

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Comments

rick cohen

Wed, 06/14/2017 3:04pm

how do i know if my window air conditioner is taking the humidity out of my room