Posted by Wayne on August 27, 2002 at 15:52:56:
In Reply to: Re: Here's the fallacy. posted by Kendall Raine on August 27, 2002 at 09:44:18:
I believe that the reason that buoyancy loss is usually about 1/2 of the amount expected by Boyle is that the bubbles are in the rubber "structure" As pressure increases the bubbles would shrink porportionally except that the rubber structure resists changes in shape and this prevents the suit material from compressing as much as expected.
At a scuba show the good folks from Rubatex (at least I think it was their booth)explained that to me and they had a pressure pot with several different brands of wetsuit material all placed under pressure. Theirs compressed less than the cheapo brands. In fact the differences were amazing! The brands with fewer, larger bubbles compressed more than the ones with many small bubbles.
Wayne