Nitrogen must be purged from both the space suit internal volume and the crew member's blood stream in order to minimize the likelihood of the crew member developing Decompression Sickness (DCS) when performing Extravehicular Activity (EVA) at subatmospheric pressures. This process typically entails a four hour pre-breathe of pure oxygen to allow sufficient time for the crew member's tissues to desorb nitrogen. The four hour clock for pre-breathe cannot be started until the oxygen percentage in the suit reaches 95%, therefore it is important to efficiently purge the air out of the suit -both to minimize the purge time, as well as minimizing the amount of purge gas that is vented overboard. This paper discusses the accomplishments of the Oceaneering-led C-SAFE team in testing a prototype vent tree for use in the Exploration Suit and correlating a CFD model to the testing. The vent tree was a split flow concept that drew in ~15% of the purge flow from each appendage and the remaining 40% of the purge flow from the abdomen location inside the suit. A prototype vent tree was fabricated and tested for nitrogen purge performance. A CFD model was then created and correlated to the testing. Nomenclature C-SAFE = Crew Spacesuit Accommodations For Exploration DCS = Decompression Sickness LEA = Launch, Entry, and Abort MPCV = Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle
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