Regional and total body active heating and cooling of a resting diver in water of varied temperatures

Passive insulations alone are not sufficient for maintaining underwater divers in thermal balance or comfort. The purpose of this study was to experimentally determine the active heating and cooling requirements to keep a diver at rest in thermal balance and comfort in water temperatures between 10 and 40 °C. A diver wearing a prototype tubesuit and a wetsuit (3 or 6.5 mm foam neoprene) was fully submersed (0.6 m) in water at a specified temperature (10, 20, 30 and 40 °C). During immersion, the tubesuit was perfused with 30 °C water at a flow rate of 0.5 L min^-1 to six individual body regions. An attempt was made to keep skin temperatures below 42 °C in hot water (>30 °C) and elevated but below 32 °C in cold water (<20 °C). A skin temperature of 32 °C is the threshold for maximal body thermal resistance due to vasoconstriction. Skin temperatures and core temperature were monitored during immersion to ensure they remained within set thermal limits. In addition skin heat flux, oxygen consumption and the thermal exchange of the tubesuit were measured. In both wetsuit thicknesses there was a linear correlation between the thermal exchange of the tubesuit and ambient water temperature. In the 6.5 mm wetsuit -214 W to 242 W of heating (-) and cooling (+) was necessary in 10 °C to 40 °C water, respectively. In the 3 mm wetsuit -462 to 342 W was necessary in 10 °C to 40 °C water, respectively. It was therefore concluded that a diver at rest can be kept in thermal balance in 10-40 °C water with active heating and cooling.