Saturation diving system

Line drawing showing a plan view od a basic saturation system, with a central transfer chamber, and clockwise, a bell locked on to the left, a recompression chamber, a living camber to the right, and a large supply lock. The living chamber and recompression chamber each have a pressure door leading to the outside environment, fitted inside and held closed by the internal pressure. The living chamber also has a small supply lock.
Schematic plan of a simple saturation system showing the main pressure vessels for human occupation
DDC – Living chamber
DTC – Transfer chamber
PTC – Personnel transfer chamber (bell)
RC – Recompression chamber
SL – Supply lock
line drawing of an assembled system showing from left to right: The personnel transfer capsule with clump weight suspended from a launch and recovery gantry, The accommodation chambers with side access lock on the left side, and a container with support equipment and controls on top.
Illustration of US Navy Saturation Fly-away Decompression System
Photograph of a bell and clump weight suspended over the water at night. Several high pressure emergency gas supply cylinders are racked on the bell frame.
Personnel Transfer Capsule.

A saturation diving system is the combined and installed equipment required to support a saturation diving operation. It may be an underwater habitat, or more commonly for commercial diving operations, a hyperbaric habitat complex, known in the industry as a saturation spread, assembled on a surface platform, supported by a range of surface support equipment, some of which is common to other surface-supplied diving activities, and some of which is used mostly or only for saturation diving. Much of the equipment can be classed as life-support equipment, and some of it is required for emergency and rescue functions.

The basic components include living space accommodations for the divers when they are not diving, with sanitation facilities and a means of providing supplies to the occupants. There are also facilities for compression and decompression, treatment of dysbaric maladies, transfer under pressure between accommodation and closed bell transportation modules for transport between the accommodation and workplace, and for emergency evacuation. Units are interconnected by trunking and can be isolated by airlock doors.

Auxiliary and support equipment includes:

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.