Journal of Ergonomics
Open Access

Abstract

Neutrally Buoyant Ergonomic Segmented Cast Composite Diving Suit with Depth-Independent Thermal Protection

Konstantinos Meligkaris, Garrett Sabesky, Jeffrey Catterlin and Emil P. Kartalov*

Sea water is a hostile environment in a multitude of ways. Cold water can quickly put the human diver into hypothermia leading to organ damage, loss of consciousness, and ultimately death. Hence, thermal protection is critical. It is usually provided by conventional neoprene wetsuits. However, neoprene loses thermal insulation with depth, as its air bubbles shrink under increasing ambient pressure. Thicker neoprene improves protection but is far less flexible, which worsens ergonomics and fatigues the diver faster. We recently developed and reported on a segmented composite suit (K1) that presented a solution to these problems. The suit uses a composite material containing silicone-embedded hollow glass microspheres. As the glass microspheres do not shrink with depth, the K1 suit offered thermal protection that was depth-independent and superior to a conventional 7 mm neoprene suit, while being as flexible as a 3 mm suit. However, the K1 suit produced large positive buoyancy, which necessitated the use of extra ballast, worsened the weight distribution, and increased the total inertial mass. Herein, we report on a new improved version of the suit (K2), which offers improved thermal protection, near neutral buoyancy, and superior ergonomics of weight distribution in comparison to K1, while retaining K1’s depth-independence and flexibility. K2 achieves these improvements by incorporating tandem segments made of a layer of hollow glass and a layer of solid ceramic microspheres. The improved K2 suit was field-tested against a variety of competing arrangements of commercial suit systems, by pair diving. The experimental results are presented herein. The K2 suit is an impactful step forward in diver suit development and should be of great interest to military, commercial, and recreational divers.

Published Date: 2022-12-30; Received Date: 2022-12-01