Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

A Humidity Generator for Temperatures to 200 °C and Pressures to 1.6 MPa

Published

Author(s)

D Vega-Maza, W. Wyatt Miller, Dean C. Ripple, Gregory E. Scace

Abstract

We have constructed a new humidity generator that produces gas streams of known moisture content at temperatures from 85 °C to 200 °C, absolute pressures from 0.2 MPa to 1.6 MPa, and relative humidities from 10 % to 90 %. The generator produces a moist gas stream by injecting fixed-rate streams of dry gas and liquid water into a vaporizer, where the water evaporates into the gas. The gas stream passes into a re-entrant RF cavity, which serves as our reference hygrometer, and then a test chamber. The present standard uncertainty of the RF hygrometer is 0.6 %, limited by uncertainty of literature values for the polarizability of water. Dry nitrogen gas purging the pressure transducer line also combines with the moist gas stream downstream of the test chamber and flows through one of a set of capillaries. Modulation of gas flow through the fixed flow impedance of the capillary gives a simple method for controlling pressure. Individual insulated, temperature-controlled aluminum ovens enclose each major component. A larger oven encloses these ovens and connecting tubing. To minimize corrosion, critical components are constructed of high-nickel alloys. The small total volume (< 1 L) and small flow rate (<0.5 L/min) reduce operational hazards from steam scalding or from gas explosion.
Citation
International Journal of Thermophysics
Volume
33
Issue
8

Keywords

fuel cell, humidity, humidity generator, steam, water

Citation

Vega-Maza, D. , Miller, W. , Ripple, D. and Scace, G. (2012), A Humidity Generator for Temperatures to 200 &#176;C and Pressures to 1.6 MPa, International Journal of Thermophysics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-010-0838-1, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905234 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created November 29, 2012, Updated October 12, 2021