ENGINEERING AND TEST FACILITIES 



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The Navy Experimental Diving Unit (EDU) test complex. Pressure facilities like 

 these are used in development and testing of diving equipment, diving methods, 

 and procedures. 



The present active projects at the Experimental Diving Unit include the 

 technical evaluation of several types of sophisticated scuba, portable air 

 compressors, depth gages, communication equipment, face masks and 

 mouth pieces. In diving physiology, experiments are conducted to deter- 

 mine the proper use of multi-inert gas, synthetic breathing mixtures, to ex- 

 tend knowledge of carbon dioxide elimination, to find more efficient 

 methods of decompressing after exposure to high pressure, and to inves- 

 tigate the means of decompressing after the human body has become com- 

 pletely saturated with inert gas on a very long dive. 



The basic equipment used for the work consists of two wet/dry pres- 

 sure vessels. Each is made up of a water tank approximately ten feet deep 

 with a dry lock on top and facilities for locking personnel into or out of 

 connected recompression chambers. Tanks and chambers have a simulated 

 working depth in salt water of 1000 ft. 



The dive profile in the tank can be made to suit either unsaturated dives 

 or saturated dives. The lengthy decompression times involved in saturated 

 diving require complete logistic facihties for the divers. 



287-778 O - 68 - 8 



