Experiment setup

1) Humidity indicator

The humidity indicator is a chemically preserved paper strip which reacts by changing its
color with a change of the relative humidity. With increasing humidity, the color
segments will become pink, with increasing dryness they become blue. This process can
be repeated many times and the humidity value can be read in % of relative humidity on a
printed scale (kept beside).

Fig 1. Humidity indicator

2) Hair Hygrometer Polymeter

The polymeter is a hair hygrometer combined with a thermometer for measuring of air
temperature and relative humidity. The mercury thermometer reads the air temperature,
and the numerical difference between this value and the value indicated by the
hygrometer needle gives the dew point. By means of these values it is possible to
ascertain saturation vapour pressure, vapour pressure, absolute humidity and saturation
deficit.
The working principle of hair hygrometer is that the length of hair changes with the
increase or decrease in humidity. Hair is used also because it has a low thermal
 coefficient of expansion. The hair hygrometer uses hair under tension to measure
humidity. When relative humidity increases, hair becomes longer, and when it drops, hair
becomes shorter. This instrument uses strands of human or horse hair attached to levers
that magnify small changes in length.

These hair hygrometers distinguish themselves by their high accuracy and their fast
response to changes in humidity. The measuring element is made of human hair with a
special treatment. The advantage of a hair element is that the element still has a fast
response at very low temperatures. Because of that feature these instruments are
appropriate for outdoor measurements. Accuracy from 20 to 100% and below 20%:
5%RH. The hair hygrometers can be uses at temperatures from -40C to +70C.

Fig 2. Hair polymeter

3) Aspiration-Psychrometer
The aspirator psychrometer by Assmann serves for measuring the air temperature and the
humidity. Two parallel mounted, equal mercury thermometers are used. The bulb of one
thermometer (wet bulb thermometer) is covered by a wick, which must be moistened for
a measurement. The bulb of the other thermometer remains without wick. Both bulbs are
encased by two radiation tubes. In order to achieve an effective radiation shield the
surface of the instrument is polished. Depending on the amount of water vapour in the
ambient air the water evaporates more or less from the wick of the wet bulb thermometer.
The evaporative cooling causes the mercury column of the wet bulb thermometer to drop.
 The dry bulb thermometer is indicating the true air temperature. From the difference in
temperature of both thermometers results the psychrometric depression. From this the
relative humidity, the dew point temperature and the vapour pressure of the air may be
computed or determined from tables. Both thermometer bulbs are ventilated during
measurements by fan. The ventilating speed at the bulbs should be at least 2 m/s.

Fig 3. Aspiration Psychrometer

We equate the heat amount which is taken away from the gas by cooling to the heat
amount necessary for the evaporation and get the expression for the water vapor partial
pressure

where p = Barometer pressure

t = (tu - tF) psychrometric temperature difference
tu = Temperature of the measuring air
pF = Water vapor saturation pressure at tF
cp = spec. heat capacity of the gas at constant pressure
R* = RL/RW , RL is the specific gas constant for dry air and RW for water vapor
hv = specific enthalpy of vaporization for water

4) LiCl-dew point measuring instrument

The sensor consists of a reel covered with an absorbent fabric (glass fibre) and a bifilar
winding (two insulated wires, with current traveling through them in opposite directions)
of inert electrodes. The reel is coated with lithium chloride. An alternating current is
passed through the winding and the lithium chloride solution, causing resistive heating.

Fig 4. LiCl-dew point measuring instrument

If an alternating current is supplied to the precious metal wires of the hot probe (low
water content in LiCl solution) then first of all only a low current flows which is
proportional (via electrical resistance) to the water content in the LiCl solution. As the
time passes the water content rises slowly due to the hygroscopic effect of the LiCl,
which leads to a reduction of the electric resistance and an increase of current flow. The
more and more Joules energy released thereby causes, through the evaporation of water
and a growing counter hygroscopic effect, the flow of water from the LiCl solution to the
surroundings. When the sensor has been heated up so much that the mass flow of the
evaporated water becomes larger than the diffusion flow which results from the
hygroscopic effect of the LiCl, then the water content in the solution decreases again, the
resistance increases and the electric current decreases. The sensor cools to the extent that
the proportion of the mass flow changes, i.e. the hygroscopic mass flow is again just
higher than the flow of evaporated water.

The apparatus comes to an equilibrium state where the temperature and the water content
of the LiCl solution reach a state where the mass flow of the evaporated water is equal to
the diffusion flow as a result of the hygroscopic effect of the LiCl solution. In this
equilibrium state the water vapor pressure over the LiCl solution is equal to the partial
pressure of the water in the surrounding air.
The temperature of the LiCl layer can be determined by the thermometer arranged inside
and with this the water vapor partial pressure from the water vapor partial pressure curve
of saturated LiCl solution. This will be equal to the water vapor partial pressure of
surrounding air at room temperature (surrounding temperature) due to the material
equilibrium. Also this is equal to the saturation pressure at the dew point and hence with
the help of the vapor pressure curve the relation between the sensor temperature and the
dew point is established. The display can be calibrated directly in such a way that it
indicates the dew point temperature, which as mentioned already in the introduction is
suitable for humidity characterization. Moreover, one can determine the relative humidity
from the vapor pressure curve
5) Mirror dew point measuring instrument
In the chilled-mirror technique, a mirror is constructed from a material with good thermal
conductivity and properly plated with an inert metal to prevent tarnishing and oxidation.
The mirror is chilled using a thermoelectric cooler until dew just begins to form. A beam
of light, typically from a solid-state broadband light emitting diode, is aimed at the mirror
surface and a photodetector monitors reflected light.
Eventually the temperature stabilizes by attaining equilibrium when the mass of water on
the surface is neither increasing (too cold a surface) nor decreasing (too warm a surface).
When the mirror surface reaches such an equilibrium state, the temperature of the mirror
is equal to the dew point temperature of the tested gas. With the determined dew point
temperature, the relative humidity can be determined with the help of h- x diagram.