Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The boiling point of water is the temperature at which the saturated vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure. Water supercooled below its normal freezing point has a higher vapor pressure than that of ice at the same temperature and is, thus, unstable. Calculations of the (saturation) vapor pressure of water are commonly used in meteorology.
A log-lin vapor pressure chart for various liquids. As a general trend, vapor pressures of liquids at ambient temperatures increase with decreasing boiling points. This is illustrated in the vapor pressure chart (see right) that shows graphs of the vapor pressures versus temperatures for a variety of liquids. [7]
where temperature T is in degrees Celsius (°C) and saturation vapor pressure P is in kilopascals (kPa). According to Monteith and Unsworth, "Values of saturation vapour pressure from Tetens' formula are within 1 Pa of exact values up to 35 °C." Murray (1967) provides Tetens' equation for temperatures below 0 °C: [3]
In the following table, material data are given with a pressure of 611.7 Pa (equivalent to 0.006117 bar). Up to a temperature of 0.01 °C, the triple point of water, water normally exists as ice, except for supercooled water, for which one data point is tabulated here. At the triple point, ice can exist together with both liquid water and vapor.
Values are given in terms of temperature necessary to reach the specified pressure. Valid results within the quoted ranges from most equations are included in the table for comparison. A conversion factor is included into the original first coefficients of the equations to provide the pressure in pascals (CR2: 5.006, SMI: -0.875).
Because the amount of water vapor in the air is small, relative humidity, the ratio of the partial pressure due to the water vapor to the saturated partial vapor pressure, is much more useful. Vapor pressure above 100% relative humidity is called supersaturated and can occur if the air is rapidly cooled, for example, by rising suddenly in an ...
The saturation with respect to water cannot be measured much below –50 °C, so manufacturers should use one of the following expressions for calculating saturation vapour pressure relative to water at the lowest temperatures – Wexler (1976, 1977), [1] [2] reported by Flatau et al. (1992)., [3] Hyland and Wexler (1983) or Sonntag (1994 ...
In food science, water activity (a w) of a food is the ratio of its vapor pressure to the vapor pressure of water at the same temperature, both taken at equilibrium. [1] Pure water has a water activity of one. Put another way, a w is the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) expressed as a fraction instead of as a percentage.