Hyperbaric Chamber: How does it work?

[dmaziuk]

There's typically a primary air supply and exhaust valve for each lock, and also a secondary air supply for each.

Do they vent CO2 from the main chamber? Or is it not a practical concern, between O2 masks and limited treatment times? Or do they use scrubbers?

 

[Akimbo]

The simplest chambers ventilate CO2 and excess O2 from the chamber atmosphere. You basically open the supply and exhaust valves at the same time and throttle one down to maintain depth. For example, let's say you open both valves wide open and the depth starts to increase. Then you throttle the supply valve down until the depth is holding at the desired depth. Meanwhile a lot of air is rushing in and out.

Larger systems that are often capable of full saturation schedules do have CO2 scrubbers, O2 and CO2 analyzers, and metabolic oxygen makeup systems. These chamber complexes will usually have a lot of other systems to support long duration and specialty medical treatments.

 

[northernone]

@northernone You make that sound like personal experience. I rather hope it wasn't.

I've helped out at a chamber. Thankfully never had a ride as a patient.


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Thanks to those excellent replies above.
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Cameron