Our Courses
Open Water
Advanced Open Water
General Knowledge
Buoyancy
Gas Theory
Boyle's Law
Advanced � Boyle
SAC Rate
Charles' Law
Dalton's Law
Volume � Calculator
Dalton's Law
Partial Pressures
Throughout our discussions thus far, we have been talking about the effect of pressure on air. We
have discussed air in balloons, air in a tank, and air in a divers lungs. It is important to point out
that air is a mixture of many different gasses, but mainly nitrogen and oxygen.
The air mixture is approximately 78% nitrogen, and 21% oxygen with the remaining 1% being a
mix of argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium and other rare gases. While some recreational diving
is done on special mixtures like nitrox, most is done breathing plain air. While the fact that
air is a mixture of gases is important when we deal with the physiology of diving, we will spend a
few moments now to understand the physics of gas mixtures.
It was the English scientist John Dalton that studied the properties of gas mixtures as they relate
to pressure and developed Dalton's Law. Dalton's Law states: The total pressure of a gas
mixture equals the sum of the partial pressures that make up the mixture.
To study this law as it
relates to scuba divers, let's see how this law affects air at different pressures. In order to make
our numbers a little more manageable, we will assume that air is a mixture of just two gases,
nitrogen and oxygen. We will also assume that the mixture is comprised of 80% nitrogen and
20% oxygen.
If we then look at this mixture as it relates to Dalton's Law, we know that 80% of the pressure of
the gas is due to the nitrogen in the mixture and 20% of the pressure is due to the oxygen in the
mixture. We refer to these as partial pressures. This means at the surface, the pressure exerted
on us by the nitrogen in the air mixture is 80% of 14.7, or 11.76 pounds per square inch. The
pressure from the oxygen is 2.94 psi. Together, these account for the 14.7 psi of pressure at the
surface.
If we look at pressures at varying depths, we get the following chart:
Partial Pressures of Compressed Air
(assuming air is 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen)
Absolute Oxygen Nitrogen
Depth Atms Pressure Pressure Pressure
0 1 14.7 2.94 11.76
33 2 29.4 5.88 23.52
66 3 44.1 8.82 35.28
99 4 58.8 11.76 47.04
132 5 73.5 14.70 58.80
165 6 88.2 17.64 70.56
198 7 102.9 20.58 82.32
231 8 117.6 23.52 94.08
264 9 132.3 26.46 105.84
297 10 147.0 29.40 117.60
We see then that as we increase the pressure on us by descending, we are dealing with increased
pressure of both nitrogen and oxygen in a 80 - 20 ratio.
It is an easy task to determine the partial pressure of any gas at any depth by using the formulas
we have learned thus far. Let's try to determine the partial pressure of oxygen at a depth of 50 feet in
sea water assuming oxygen is 20% of the gas mixture.
The first thing we must do is determine the ambient pressure for this depth (If unfamiliar with ambient pressure, refer to Intro to Gas Laws). We know that salt
water exerts .445 pounds of pressure per foot, so the water pressure for this depth would be
.445 x 50, or 22.25 psi. To this we add the atmospheric pressure of 14.7 for an ambient pressure
of 36.95. If we take 20% of this, we have our answer. 36.95 x .20 = 7.39 Thus, the partial
pressure of oxygen at a depth of 50 feet in sea water would be 7.39psi.
Determine the partial pressure of nitrogen at a depth of 40 feet in fresh water, while breathing a
gas mixture that is 79% nitrogen.
Fresh water exerts .432 psi per foot of depth so we multiply .432 by 40 to get 17.28. To this we
add our atmosphere of air pressure, 14.7 to get an ambient pressure of 31.98. If you take 79% of
this number you get the answer: 31.98 x .79 = 25.2642
Java Pressure / Volume Calculator
Uses Boyle's Law to calculate volume changes with depth.
| |