old frogman
Contributor
I explained the oxygen window on page 20.I don't understand your point. Oxygen is more soluble in blood (and other tissues) than nitrogen and helium. What does that mean in terms of an "oxygen window", and what is the practical effect in terms of decompression?
The significance to decompression is that in the venous system, the CO2 (resulting from metabolised O2) has a lower tension (partial pressure). This lower CO2 tension creates a void for accommodating N2 during ascent. This facilitates ascent with minimal N2 Bubbling.
This partially explains why you can ascend (to some extent) without experiencing decompression stress. In practice asymptomatic bubbles will still form but the oxygen window helps to reduce this.
As stated before, the off gassing is not a product of the oxygen window but a of product of pressure differential caused by the ascent.
The CO2 window is the result of the different solubility of O2 and CO2 which drives the process of O2 flowing from arterial capillaries into tissues and the metabolised product CO2 flowing out tissues into the venous capillaries. It is an isobaric process independent of external pressure. It explains how our cells respirate.
Solubility coefficients at 25C at 1 ATM in water are as follows:
O2 is 0.031
CO2 is 0.76
Consequently, CO2 is about 24 time more soluble than O2. The higher the solubility, the lower the tension of the dissolved gas.
Sorry I cannot make this simpler. Human physiology is complex.
PS. The solubility coefficient of N2 is 0.015. Relative to O2 and CO2 it is less soluble, higher tension and explains why it likes to come out of solution forming bubbles.