CHAPTER 1. HYPERBARIC FACILITIES

1.

SCOPE. This manual provides design guidance for hyperbaric facilities

and discusses the aspects of construction, fabrication, testing, and cleaning

related to design.

2.

CANCELLATION. This manual supersedes NAVFAC DM-39, Hyperbaric

Facilities, dated October 1972 in its entirety.

3.

BASIS OF MANUAL. This manual is essentially based on the experiences

of divers, operators, maintenance personnel, and designers of hyperbaric

facilities. This includes experience with various materials and procedures

for design, fabrication, construction, testing, cleaning, using, and

maintaining the parts and components made from these materials.

4.

CRITERIA. Principal criteria related to hyperbaric facilities are in

the following documents:

Subject

Source

Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code,

Section VIII, Divisions 1 and 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ASME

Safety Standard for Pressure Vessels

for Human Occupancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ANSI/ASME PVHO 1

Power Piping

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ANSI/ASME B31.1

Standard for Hyperbaric Facilities

. . . . . . . . . . . . NFPA 56D

Manual on Fire Hazards in Oxygen-

Enriched Atmospheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NFPA 53M

5.

FUNCTION. The hyperbaric facility shall provide a safe, reliable, and

carefully controlled environment in one or more chambers or pressure vessels

(PV) at pressures above atmospheric. The controlled environment may consist

of mixed gasses, liquids, or gasses and liquids at closely controlled

pressure, temperature, humidity, and chemical composition for the PV

occupants (humans, animals, tissue, equipment and materials) in accordance

with mission requirements.

6.

MISSION. The mission may be diver training, diver treatment, medical

treatment, research and development on human and animal health improvement

and equipment and material improvement. The mission may require the

environment to be unvarying, continually varying, or cyclically varying by

manual controls or automatic controls with operator manual override of the PV

inputs. The mission may continue for hours, days, weeks or months. The PV

occupants and their needs during the mission determine the specific

requirements such as dimensions and sizes of the hyperbaric facility.