Submarine tower escape decompression sickness risk estimation.

Actions to enhance survival in a distressed submarine (DISSUB) scenario may be guided in part by knowledge of the likely risk of decompression sickness (DCS) should the crew attempt tower escape. A mathematical model for DCS risk estimation has been calibrated against DCS outcome data from 3,738 exposures of either men or goats to raised pressure. Body mass was used to scale DCS risk. The calibration data included more than 1,000 actual or simulated submarine escape exposures and no exposures with substantial staged decompression. Cases of pulmonary barotrauma were removed from the calibration data. The calibrated model was used to estimate the likelihood of DCS occurrence following submarine escape from the United Kingdom Royal Navy tower escape system. Where internal DISSUB pressure remains at - 0.1 MPa, escape from DISSUB depths < 200 meters is estimated to have DCS risk < 6%. Saturation at raised DISSUB pressure markedly increases risk, with > 60% DCS risk predicted for a 200-meter escape from saturation at 0.21 MPa. Using the calibrated model to predict DCS for direct ascent from saturation gives similar risk estimates to other published models.

Submarine 'safe to escape' studies in man.

The Royal Navy requires reliable advice on the safe limits of escape from a distressed submarine (DISSUB). Flooding in a DISSUB may cause a rise in ambient pressure, increasing the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) and decreasing the maximum depth from which it is safe to escape. The aim of this study was to investigate the pressure/depth limits to escape following saturation at raised ambient pressure. Exposure to saturation pressures up to 1.6 bar (a) (160 kPa) (n = 38); escapes from depths down to 120 meters of sea water (msw) (n = 254) and a combination of saturation followed by escape (n = 90) was carried out in the QinetiQ Submarine Escape Simulator, Alverstoke, United Kingdom. Doppler ultrasound monitoring was used to judge the severity of decompression stress. The trials confirmed the previously untested advice, in the Guardbook, that if a DISSUB was lying at a depth of 90 msw, then it was safe to escape when the pressure in the DISSUB was 1.5 bar (a), but also indicated that this advice may be overly conservative. This study demonstrated that the upper DISSUB saturation pressure limit to safe escape from 90 msw was 1.6 bar (a), resulting in two cases of DCS.