The adiabatic saturator was designed and constructed at shop 101L of the mechanical engineering laboratory room of Misamis University, Ozamiz City from December 2003 to March 2004. The study and evaluation of the design was carried out after a sequence of groundwork testing.

          Most of the materials being used in our design were found in the shop; like the steel bars, welding machine, drilling machine, airflow, thermocouple and other materials not available in our shop such as the water pump, plastic cellophane, and plastic water pipes were available in the local hardware. The collecting basin was made up of steel with steel bars on the side and above to hold the water pipes that sprays the re-circulated water as shown in Figure 1. The water pump with a 220 watts was placed on the collecting basin and a plastic water pipes was used to re-circulate the water. Plastic cellophane was used to cover the collecting basin to the top of the sprinkler. A duct was connected to the fan/blower that circulates the cooled/saturated air as shown in Figure 2 & 3. 

          The adiabatic saturator system pumps water through the plastic water pipes and are collected by the collecting basin. As the air passes through the sprinkle of water it undergoes adiabatic saturation and it is believed that saturated air has a lower temperature comparing to the unsaturated air. A thermocouple is placed on the collecting basin to measure temperature referring to as the wet bulb temperature, one on the exhaust to take the temperature of the saturated air shown in Figure 4 and another outside the system to measure the ambient temperature.

4.1          Adiabatic Saturation Process

          The following procedure will help to determine and evaluate adiabatic saturation process:

ž      Taking & recording the ambient temperature (unsaturated air) every one hour

ž      Taking and recording the water temperature (wet bulb) every one hour

ž      Taking and recording the exhaust temperature (saturated air) every one hour

4.1.1    Calculation

Temperature Drop   =   t₁  -   t₂

Where:

t₁    =   Temperature of entering/unsaturated air (ambient temp.), °C

         t₂     =    Temperature of air leaving the saturator (exhaust temp.), °C

Figure 1. A plastic water pipes above the collecting basin for the re-circulated water to be sprayed.

Figure 2. A duct connected to a blower/fan to collect and distribute the saturated air.

Figure 3. The Forward Curved Blade Blower.

Figure 4. The exhaust which is connected from the blower. 

This is where the saturated air exits.