Predictive Engineering Formulations for Diver Heating

Abstract

Predictive heat transfer equations have been developed to estimate the local supplementary heating necessary to support a resting diver. These formulations consider the diver’s passive thermal protection in the form of a diving dress and the effects of his ambient environment upon the dress thermal resistance. The mathematical model performs a numerical analysis on discrete regions comprised of the skin, dry protective suit, breathing gas mixture and the surrounding fluid environment. The parametric properties associated with the heat transfer correlations were obtained from validated experimental heat flux and skin temperature data collected under specific environmental conditions. The supplementary heating required to maintain a diver is obtained by determining the heat flux that would be lost were he not heated and substracting from this the normal heat flux expected from a resting euthermic subject. Applying this principle to each of the regions, it is possible to predict the supplementary heating necessary to compensate for an excessiveflux.