Protective Suit Environmental Control System (PSECS)

Protective suits that isolate a marine from the environment can also build up excessive internal heat and humidity, impairing performance and possibly leading to heat casualties. We propose to develop an innovative environmental control system that will maintain a cool, dry environment inside protective suits. There are two key innovations: (1) a novel cooling process that provides very high efficiency, and (2) a unique cooling garment that removes both heat and humidity from the suit interior. In Phase I we proved the feasibility of our approach through laboratory tests that demonstrated both of these critical innovations. We used the test results to produce a conceptual design for a full-size system. In Phase II we will design, build, and demonstrate a full-size, prototype system.