Building Services Engineering 5th Edition Handbook

Condensation in buildings 245
where y is the number whose logarithm to base e is x. Logarithms to base e are called natural
logarithms and are expressed as follows:
log e y = x or ln y = x
EXAMPLE 10.3
Compute the natural logarithm of 2 and then raise e to the power of this logarithm.
Enter 2 into the calculator x display and press the ln key; the answer is 0.6931. Therefore:
ln 2 = 0.6931 or log e 2 = 0.6931
Now, as x = 0.6931 is displayed in the calculator, execute e x . This results in
e 0.6931 = 2
Thus it is seen that e x is the antilogarithm of ln x, and the two expressions y = e x and ln y = x
are interchangeable to suit the problem. Thus for:
p s
600.245 = exp(0.0684 t dp )
we can write:
(
ln
p s
600.245
)
= 0.0684 t dp
and,
1
(
t dp =
0.0684 × ln p
) s ◦C
600.245
EXAMPLE 10.4
Calculate the dew-point for saturated air with a vapour pressure of 2000.6 Pa.
t dp = 1 ( ) 2000.6 ◦
0.0684 × ln C
600.245
= 1 × ln 3.33
0.0684
= 17.6 ◦ C
An alternative general equation is stated in BRE Digest 369 for the calculation of vapour
pressure:
p s = 0.6105 × exp
(
17.269 × tdp
237.3 + t dp
)
kPa