RTO MP-062 / HFM-050 - FTP Directory Listing - Nato

KN1-10
Figure 2 Lung damage on rapid decompression, related to the ratio of the initial pressure to the final pressure of the
decompression and the ratio of cabin volume (m 3 ) to the effective area (m 2 ) of the orifice through which the cabin was
decompressed. The broken lines indicate the duration of the decompression calculated using the equations developed
by Haber and Clamann (1953). The solid curve labelled Violette was the relationship found by Violette (1954) using
animal models which separates decompressions which caused lung damage and gas embolism (conditions above and to
the right of the curve) from decompressions which did not cause any detectable damage to the animals (conditions
below and to the left of the curve). The solid points indicate conditions to which human subjects have been
decompressed [with no obstruction to the flow of gas from the respiratory tract] with no untoward effect. 1- Sweeney
(1944); 2- Hitchcock et al (1948); 3- Luft and Bancroft (1954); 4- Ernsting et al (1960). The two solid horizontal lines
indicate the ratios of initial to final pressures for decompression of an aircraft at 40,000 feet with cabin differential
pressures of 5.0 and 7.0 Lb in -2 respectively.