Wet steam contains what?

Wet steam is a mixture of liquid water and water vapor. It consists of both liquid and gas phases, which means it carries certain thermal energy characteristics. The correct answer highlights that wet steam contains all the sensible heat of the liquid water, which is the heat required to raise the temperature of the water without changing its phase. In addition, it contains only part of the latent heat of vaporization, as some of the liquid is still present.

Latent heat of vaporization refers to the amount of heat needed to convert a liquid into vapor without changing its temperature. Since wet steam includes both liquid and gas phases, it does not carry all the latent heat because a portion of the water remains in the liquid state. Therefore, the steam contains all the sensible heat (which applies to the liquid part that can still change temperature) and a fraction of the latent heat (from the vapor, as it hasn’t entirely converted to steam).

This allows for a practical understanding of how wet steam behaves in systems, especially in applications such as turbines or condensers, where control of temperature and phase is crucial for efficiency.