Development and Evaluation of Deep-Sea Swimsuit Materials.
Abstract
Two chemically distinct, flexible, syntactic foams--a Unit-developed, polyurethane, hollow-glass-microsphere composite and a proprietary, PVC, hollow-glass-microsphere composite--have been produced which may prove useful for swimsuit applications in deep-sea environments down to 1000 feet of salt water (FSW). Tests showed that both materials were essentially incompressible to depths of 1000 FSW (less than 3%) and provided more insulation than currently used Neoprene-foam materials at depths greater than 20 FSW. The materials, however, were considerably heavier than the foam although significantly less dense than sea water. Standard wet-style swimsuits were fabricated from these experimental materials for verification of sample thermal-conductivity data. Suit conductivity tests performed on an instrumented copper manikin substantially confirmed the material test data obtained with a guarded hot-plate device. During construction of the suits it also became apparent that special designs and fabrication techniques would have to be developed to utilize these materials most effectively. The thermal-conductivity results measured for both material composites were higher than expected based upon theoretical derivations, indicating that further improvements may be possible in this property. (Author, modified-PL)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0763378
Entities
People
- Maurice N. Larrivee
- Norman F. Audet