Density of Air
Density of Air
Density of Air
Contents
where is the air density, p is absolute pressure, Rspecific is the specific gas constant for dry air,
and T is absolute temperature.
The specific gas constant for dry air is 287.058 J/(kgK) in SI units, and 53.35 (ftlbf)/(lbmR) in
United States customary and Imperial units. This quantity may vary slightly depending on the
molecular composition of air at a particular location.
Therefore:
At IUPAC standard temperature and pressure (0 C and 100 kPa), dry air has a density of
1.2754 kg/m3.
At 20 C and 101.325 kPa, dry air has a density of 1.2041 kg/m3.
At 70 F and 14.696 psi, dry air has a density of 0.074887lbm/ft3.
The following table illustrates the air densitytemperature relationship at 1 atm or 101.325 kPa:
Temperature
T in C
+35
+30
+25
+20
+15
+10
+5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Water vapor
The addition of water vapor to air (making the air humid) reduces the density of the air, which
may at first appear counter-intuitive.
This occurs because the molecular mass of water (18 g/mol) is less than the molecular mass of
dry air (around 29 g/mol). For any gas, at a given temperature and pressure, the number of
molecules present is constant for a particular volume (see Avogadro's Law). So when water
molecules (vapor) are added to a given volume of air, the dry air molecules must decrease by the
same number, to keep the pressure or temperature from increasing. Hence the mass per unit
volume of the gas (its density) decreases.
The density of humid air may be calculated as a mixture of ideal gases. In this case, the partial
pressure of water vapor is known as the vapor pressure. Using this method, error in the density
calculation is less than 0.2% in the range of 10 C to 50 C. The density of humid air is found
by:
[1]
where:
Density of the humid air (kg/m)
Partial pressure of dry air (Pa)
Where:
Vapor pressure of water
Relative humidity
Saturation vapor pressure
The saturation vapor pressure of water at any given temperature is the vapor pressure when
relative humidity is 100%. One formula [1] used to find the saturation vapor pressure is:
This will give a result in hPa (100 Pa, equivalent to the older unit millibar, 1 mbar =
0.001 bar = 0.1 kPa)
is found considering partial pressure, resulting in:
Altitude
Temperature at altitude h meters above sea level is approximated by the following formula (only
valid inside the troposphere):
Density can then be calculated according to a molar form of the ideal gas law:
where M is molar mass, R is the ideal gas constant, and T is absolute temperature.