ABSTRACT
In order to understand the concept of wet bulb temperature
for air-water vapor mixtures, it is necessary to understand
two processes for saturating any gas with water.[1,2] One of
the processes can be visualized through use of the following
experiment. In a well-insulated chamber (Fig. 1), an enter-
ing gas contacts a spray of recirculating liquid water. The
gas leaving the chamber is at a higher humidity and lower
temperature than the gas that enters. The evaporation of
water into the gas results in saturation of the gas by con-
verting part of the enthalpy (sensible heat) of the entering
gas into latent heat for vaporizing water. Exchange of heat
between the gas and the water with no loss across the
chamber walls is defined as adiabatic saturation.
