Mixtures of Ideal Gases and Humid Air

In addition to pure substances, mixtures of substances play a major role in thermodynamics. For example, our ambient air is a mixture of many components, such as nitrogen and oxygen, which make up the largest proportion of the air. In the exercises presented here, the topic is how thermodynamic state variables can be determined for such mixtures. If the state variables are accessible, the first and second laws of thermodynamics can be applied as usual. To stay with the example of ambient air, it is known that air can also carry water vapour. The higher the temperature of the air, the greater the absorption capacity for water vapour. The tasks presented here deal with this so-called humid air and examine in particular what happens when the water vapour condenses out. Tasks are presented that address the conditioning of indoor air and according to which criteria air conditioning systems are designed. In particular, graphical solution methods are applied.