## VPM-B for real dives (or not)

The VPM-B model (of which I have described my understanding in previous posts) has a “derivation” in terms of bubble physics which I, as readers should have noticed, have some trouble to follow through completely as it is, to say the least, ad hoc and sketchy in places. I bet, only based on this derivation in prose plus formulas, nobody would be able to write a program to compute a VPM-B deco plan.

But we are lucky: There is a reference implementation in terms of a FORTRAN program. So, even though the VPM-B code in Subsurface is a complete rewrite (and solves many things algorithmically differently than the original code), we did a lot of testing to make sure that the plans we produce are identical to the plans computed using the FORTRAN program, even in places where we thought it makes little sense (like starting the ascent to the next stop when the ceiling depth equals the depth of the next stop rather than starting a bit earlier and making sure never to violate the ceiling during the ascent to the next stop (which is different since the ceiling goes up during the time it takes to get to the next stop). The latter is, at least to me, better motivated physically (“simply never violate the ceiling”) than basing the stop time on what happens at a different depth (namely the next stop depth) and we use the latter when computing Bühlmann schedules. But for VPM-B, we thought, given that we do not really understand the physics, we should not modify the model based on physics.

I have talked in the past about the Bühlmann model not being well defined to make all implementations come up with identical plans. In a sense, we are in a better situation with VPM-B, since there is the FORTRAN program which (at least for us) defines the model. But the problem is: This definition works only for the situation that you can compute with the FORTRAN program: You specify the bottom part of the dive and then let the program work out the ascent. Strictly speaking there is no definition for real dives: Dives where the distinction between bottom part and deco is blurred. But this is exactly what you have if you were to implement it in a dive computer or, as for Subsurface: Implement it in a dive log to show a ceiling for a logged dive (after all, Subsurface is mainly a divelog). For real dives, you cannot tell the exact point where bottom time ends and deco begins.

Unfortunately, the model depends on this: As explained in the VPM-B derivation post, one parameter that goes into the computation is the total deco time $$t_D$$ (clearly that ends when you reach the surface, but where does it start?) but there are other parameters that you are supposed to evaluate at the beginning of the ascent like $$p_{1st ceiling}$$ and the initial gradient for the Boyle compensation. All this depends on the time you call the end of bottom time and thus the computed ceilings also depend on that.

For Subsurface, we decided to take the point of time with the deepest ceiling (which, strictly speaking, is a circular definition but in practice is irrelevant) as the end of bottom time and base the ceiling computation in logbook mode on that. But that, to some degree, is arbitrary. And even for dives that we planned using VPM-B (and thus agree with the schedules computed by the FORTRAN program), applying this logic yields a slightly different ceiling. So it can appear that a VPM-B planned dive violates the VPM-B ceiling. But this is only due to the fact that the model is not really defined outside the planning situation.

Or put differently: You need to make arbitrary assumptions (not based on the depth profile and the gas you are breathing) to come up with a VPM-B ceiling. Which, at least for me, doesn’t strengthen my believe into this model.

PS: I am planning to be at the Boot dive show in Düsseldorf on Friday January 26th. If you happen to be there as well, please let me know and we can shake hands!

## VPM-B: How to compute your deco

This is the first technical post about the inner workings of the VPM-B deco model. Here I will just present the algorithm (including the relevant formulas, some of them maybe in an unusual form) while the physical motivation or derivation will be the subject of a future post.

I try not to parrot the original explanations (which, honestly, I do not really understand) but rather put in words what I learned by staring long enough at the subsurface implementation of the model. As I explained earlier, we tried to make this an independent implementation but of course in the end we made sure it produces the identical deco schedules to the original FORTRAN code (that we took as the definition of the model).

First of all, it is not that different from the Bühlmann model, it rather builds on it. For the sake of presentation, I will assume you are familiar with how that model works (if not, I wrote a brief summary with some background in German, to be translated to English soon). In particular, it computes the same tissue loadings with inert gases following a simple diffusion equation

$$\frac{dp_i}{dt} = \alpha_i(p_{amb}-p_i)$$

where the time constant $$\alpha_i$$ is essentially the inverse tissue half-time.

The only difference is how to compute the current ceiling for a snapshot of tissue loadings (“tensions” in the deco theory speak) $$p_i$$: Bühlmann proposes an affine dependence on the ambient pressure (with the affine relation given in terms of the famous $$a$$ and $$b$$ coefficients. If you use gradient factors, this affine relation is further modified (depending on your lowest ceiling), but when you plot the ceiling as a function of $$p_i$$ it is still a straight line, i.e. affine.

This is different for VPM-B: Only in the zero’s approximation it is still a straight line. In fact, there the ceiling is simply given by a maximal gradient (difference between tissue pressure and ambient pressure) that is independent of the depth:

$$p_{amb} – p_i \le G_{0,i}.$$

This is called the initial gradient $$G_0$$. In this approximation, VPM-B is like Buehlmann, only with different a and b coefficients.

For the next approximation, the “Boyle compensation” we need to know a little bit about bubbles. in fact, the only thing one needs to know is that they have a surface and in the total energy balance of the bubble the surface contributes proportional to its area:

$$E_{surf}= \gamma r^2$$

for a bubble of radius r (we can absorb all kinds of numerical constants like $$4\pi$$ in the proportionality constant $$\gamma$$. Then the force on the bubble surface that wants to shrink it is

$$F_{surf} = \frac{\partial E_{surf}}{\partial r} = 2\gamma r.$$

Finally, this force acts on all of the surface, by dividing by its area again, we get the surface’s contribution to the pressure

$$G=\frac{2\gamma}r.$$

This type of formula, the a bubble surface contributing to the bubble’s internal pressure by $$2\gamma/r$$ you will see over and over again.

In particular, that the deepest point in the dive, or actually when reaching the first ceiling, the gradient $$G_0$$ is exactly this. And the Boyle compensation means that the (now depth dependent) maximal gradient (i.e. ambient pressure minus tissue pressure) is given by letting such a bubble expand according to Boyle’s law, i.e. by assuming that $$pV$$ is constant. $$p$$ inside the bubble (which is supposedly the same as the tissue pressure) is then given by the ambient pressure plus the momentary maximal gradient while the volume is proportional to $$r^3$$ which according to the above formula is proportional to $$1/G^3$$. So in total, the allowed difference between the tissue and the ambient pressure at depth $$d$$ is given by solving

$$\frac{G+p(d)}{G^3} = \frac {G_0+p_{1st\ ceiling}}{G_0^3}$$

So, rather than being a straight line, the maximal gradient is now the solution of a cubic equation (for which, in Subsurface, we use an analytic expression rather than running a Newton root finder as in the original implementation).

So far, I did not tell you what the initial gradient $$G_0$$ is. The VPM-B expression for it is

$$G_0 = 2 \frac\gamma{\gamma_c} \frac {\gamma_c – \gamma}{r_{reg}}.$$

Here, $$r_{reg}$$ is the crushing radius which is again determined from an expression of a bubble surface tension:

$$\frac{2(\gamma_c-\gamma)}{r_{reg}} = p_{max} + \frac{2(\gamma_c-\gamma)}{r_{crit}}$$

Here $$\gamma$$ and $$\gamma_c$$ are some surface tensions (effectively parameters of the model) as is $$r_{crit}$$. The latter is where one can tune the conservatism of the model: Each level of conservatism (like three levels in VPM-B+3) increases $$r_{crit}$$ by 5 percent. $$p_{max}$$ is the maximal ambient pressure encountered during the dive. In principle, it is also assumed that over time, $$r_{reg}$$ also exponentially approaches $$r_{crit}$$ again, but it is totally safe to ignore this since the decay time is supposed two weeks, far too long to play any role at the typical time scales of the dive.

Now, you have everything to compute a deco schedule: Like in the Buehlmann model, you know for each depth what the maximal gradient is.

Turns out, these schedules take far too long. This is where the “critical volume algorithm” comes into play. We now slightly increase the first gradient (the role so far played by $$G_0$$) which then is also subject to the Boyle compensation.

The idea here is that the body can tolerate an additional amount of gas going into bubbles. The maximal volume, again, is a model parameter and it is compared to the excess volume as follows: One assumes there is some distribution of bubble sizes. By enlarging the gradient $$G_0$$ to $$G_0′$$, the number of additional bubbles will be (this is one of the places where I do not understand the derivation, but let’s take the expression anyway) proportional to

$$\frac{G_0′-G_0}{G_0′-\alpha G_{crush}}.$$

Here, $$\alpha$$ is another constant and $$G_{crush}$$ is the maximal excess of the ambient pressure over the tissue pressure over the dive which also happens to be the pressure gradient over the surface of the bubble (if that is too big, we are in the “impermeable regime” and then there is another Boyle type compensation).

Furthermore, rate of additional out gasing is assumed to be proportional to the gradient $$G_0′$$ (totally ignoring the first Boyle compensation) and the whole thing lasts (assuming a constant gradient) over all of the decompression time (defined as the time from the first tissue starting to release gas again until we reach the surface). This decompression time $$t_D$$ is what we computed above where I said we can now compute a deco plan from the gradients.

Once we reach the surface, there is still an overpressure in the tissue compared to the ambient pressure, it starts with $$G_0′$$ (again ignoring the Boyle compensation) and then, according to the diffusion equation above, approaches 0 exponentially. so the time integral of the gradient yields $$G_0’/\alpha_i$$. Throwing all together, we get as a criterium for the maximal $$G_0′$$

$$V\ge \frac{G_0′-G_0}{G_0′-\alpha G_{crush}} G_0′ \left(t_D +\frac 1{\alpha_i}\right)$$

This we then solve for $$G_0′$$ which we can use for computing a new deco schedule which gives a new $$t_D$$ and we repeat this until $$G_0′$$ does not change anymore.

Apart from some minor fine print (like how in detail the deco schedules are computed) is all there is to VPM-B. With this information, you should, in principle be able to implement it yourself.

In the next post, I will look into the physics that is invoked to argue for some of the expressions that I only quoted here.

## VPM-B: Wie funktioniert’s (deutsche Übersetzung)

Dies ist der erste technische Post darüber, wie VPM-B funktioniert. Ich werde nur den Algorithmus beschrieben (mit allen wichtigen Formeln, einige davon vielleicht  in ungewohnter Form), während die physikalische Herleitung in einem späteren Post behandelt werden wird.

Ich werde nicht versuchen, die ursprüngliche Herleitung nachzubeten (auch schon alleine, weil ich sie nicht wirklich verstehe), sondern vielmehr beschreiben, was ich durch langes Starren auf unsere Implementierung des Modells in Subsurface gelernt habe. Wie vorher schon erklärt haben wir versucht eine unabhängige Neuimplementierung zu machen, haben aber natürlich sicher gestellt, dass die Austauschpläne des ursprünglichen FORTRAN-Programms reproduziert werden. Dieses haben wir letztendlich als die Definition von VPM-B hergenommen.

Zunächst ist dieses dem Bühlmannmodell sehr ähnlich und baut darauf auf. Für diesen Post nehme ich an, dass dieses bekannt ist (falls nicht habe ich hier mal eine kurze Zusammenfassung aufgeschrieben). Insbesondere werden die Sättigungen der verschiedenen Gewebe mit Inertgasen mit der gleichen einfachen Diffusionsgleichung beschrieben:

$$\frac{dp_i}{dt} = \alpha_i(p_{amb}-p_i)$$

wobei die Zeitkonstante $$\alpha_i$$ im wesentlichen der Kehrwert der Halbwertzeit des Gewebes ist.

Der einzige Unterschied besteht darin, wie die Ceiling (die momentan minimal erlaubte Tiefe) aus den Gewebesaettigungen $$p_i$$ berechnet wird: Bühlmann verwendet einen affine Zusammenhang mit dem Umgebungsdruck (die Geradengleichung wird durch die gekannten $$a$$ und $$b$$ Koeffizienten parametrisiert. Verwendet man Gradientenfaktoren, die wird Geradengleichung noch weiter modifiziert (abhängig von der maximalen Ceiling, aber die Ceiling, geplottet als Funktion von  $$p_i$$ bleibt eine Gerade, ist also affin).

Für VPM-B ist dies anders: Nur in der nullten Näherung bleibt es eine Gerade: In der Tat wird die Ceiling einfach durch einen konstanten Gradienten (die Differenz zwischen Umgebungsdruck und Gewebedruck) gegeben, dieser ist sogar von der Tiefe unabhängig:

$$p_{amb} – p_i \le G_{0,i}.$$

Dieser Gradient wird als Anfangsgradient  $$G_0$$ bezeichnet. In dieser Näherung verhält sich VPM-B genau wie ein Buehlmannmodell mit modifizierten a und b Koeffizienten.

Für die nächste Näherung, die “Boyle-Kompensation” müssen wir etwas über Blasen wissen. Alles, was wir brauchen, ist, dass diese eine Oberfläche haben und dass die Oberfläche zur Gesamtenergie proportional zu ihrer Fläche beiträgt:

$$E_{surf}= \gamma r^2$$

für eine Blase mit Radius $$r$$ (wir können numerische Faktoren wie $$4\pi$$ in der Proportionalitätskonstantante $$\gamma$$ absorbieren). Die Kraft auf die Oberfläche, die diese zu verkleinern sucht, ist dann

$$F_{surf} = \frac{\partial E_{surf}}{\partial r} = 2\gamma r.$$

Diese Kraft wirkt auf die gesamte Fläche, teilen wir durch den Flächeninhalte erhalten wir einen Beitrag zum Druck in der Blase:

$$G=\frac{2\gamma}r.$$

Derartige Formeln, bei denen eine Blasenoberfläche  $$2\gamma/r$$ zum Druck beiträgt, werden im Folgenden immer wieder auftauchen.

Insbesondere zu dem Zeitpunkt im Tauchgang mit der tiefsten Ceiling ist der Gradient $$G_0$$ genau dies. “Boyle-Kompensation” bedeutet, dass der von nun an tiefenabhängige Gradient (also der Umgebungsdruck minus Gewebedruck) dadurch gegeben ist, dass man eine Blase nach dem Boyle-Marriott-Gesetz expandieren lässt, also dass man annimmt, dass $$pV$$ konstant ist. $$p$$ im Inneren der Blase (was nach dem Modell mit dem Gewebedruck gleich ist) wird dann berechnet als der Umgebungsdruck plus dem momentanen maximalen Gradienten. Das Volumen der Blase ist proportional zu $$r^3$$ und dies ist nach der obigen Formel proportional zu $$1/G^3$$. Alles in allem ist die erlaubte Differenz zwischen Gewebe- und Umgebungsdruck in der Tiefe $$d$$ gegeben durch die Lösung von

$$\frac{G+p(d)}{G^3} = \frac {G_0+p_{1st\ ceiling}}{G_0^3}.$$

Folglich ist der der maximale Gradient keine Gerade mehr, sondern die Lösung einer kubischen Gleichung (für die wir in Subsurface auch einen analytischen Ausdruck verwenden statt wie im Originalcode eine Nullstellensuche mittels Newtonverfahren zu veranstalten).

Ich habe noch nicht erklärt, wie der Anfangsgradient $$G_0$$ berechnet wird. Für VPM-B lautet der Ausdruck dafür

$$G_0 = 2 \frac\gamma{\gamma_c} \frac {\gamma_c – \gamma}{r_{reg}}.$$

Hier ist  $$r_{reg}$$ der “Crushing-Radius”, der sich mittels

$$\frac{2(\gamma_c-\gamma)}{r_{reg}} = p_{max} + \frac{2(\gamma_c-\gamma)}{r_{crit}}$$

aus der Oberflächenspannung der Blase berechnen lässt.

Hier wiederum sind  $$\gamma$$ und $$\gamma_c$$ Oberflächenspannungen (am Ende: Modellparameter), ebenso wie $$r_{crit}$$. Letzteres ist der Parameter, an dem man den Konservatismus des Modells einstellen kann: Jede zusätzliche Konservatismusstufe (zum Beispiel VPM-B+3) erhöht $$r_{crit}$$ um 5 Prozent.  $$p_{max}$$ ist das Maximum des Umgebungsdrucks während des Tauchgangs. Im Prinzip soll man diesen auch wieder exponentiell  an  $$r_{crit}$$ angleichen; dies kann man aber getrost ignorieren, da die Halbwertzeit von zwei Wochen viel länger als alle relevanten Zeitskalen eines Tauchgangs sind.

Jetzt haben wir alles, was wir brauchen, um eine Deko-Profil zu berechnen: Für jede Tiefe kennen wir wie im Buhlmann-Modell den maximal erlaubten Überdruck.

Es stellt sich heraus, dass die so erhaltenen Dekoprofile viel zu lange dauern. Hier kommt der “Kritische-Volumen-Algorithmus” ins Spiel. Wir erhöhen leicht den Anfangsgradienten (bisher war das $$G_0$$ und unterwerfen den dann ebenso der Boyle-Korrektur.

Die Idee dabei ist, dass der Körper eine bestimmte zusätzliche Menge an Gas in Blasenform verträgt. Dieses erlaubte Volumen ist wiederum ein Modellparameter und wird mit einem wie folgt für einen Anfangsgradienten $$G_0′$$ berechnet: Es wird angenommen, dass es vor dem Tauchgang eine bestimmte Verteilung der Blasenzahl abhängig von ihrer Größe im Körper gibt. Dadurch, dass der Anfangsgradient von $$G_0$$ auf $$G_0′$$ erhöht wird, erhöht sich die Zahl der wachsenden Blasen (generell wachsen grosse Blasen, da bei ihnen der Druckanteil durch die Oberflächenspannung kleiner ist, siehe oben, während kleine schrumpfen). Die Zahl der zusätzlich wachsenden Blasen ist dann in linearer Näherung proportional zu (und dies ist einer der Orte, wo ich die Herleitung nicht verstehe, aber verwenden wir den Ausdruck trotzdem):

$$\frac{G_0′-G_0}{G_0′-\alpha G_{crush}}.$$

Hier ist  $$\alpha$$ ein weiterer Modellparameter und  $$G_{crush}$$ ist der maximale Überdruck des Umgebungsdrucks zum Gewebedruck während des Tauchgangs und nach den Regeln des Modells ebenso der maximale Unterschied zwischen dem Innen- und dem Außendruck einer Blase (wenn dieser zu groß ist, kommen wir ins “nichtpermeable Regime” und man wendet eine weitere Boyle-Kompensation an).

Eine weiter Annahme ist, dass die Rate mit der Gas in die Gasphase in Blasen geht, proportional zum Gradienten $$G_0′$$ ist (die erfolgte Boyle-Compensation fällt hier unter den Tisch). Da man also annimmt, dass der Gradient während der Deko (definiert als die Zeit, zwischen dem Zeitpunkt, bei dem das erste Gewebe beginnt, den Gewebedruck wieder abzubauen bis zum Erreichen der Oberfläche) konstant ist, multiplizieren wir den Gradienten mit der Dekozeit (dies ist die Zeit $$t_D$$ die wir oben berechnet haben, als wir den Dekoplan aus den Gradienten berechnet haben).

Sobald wir die Oberfläche erreichen, gibt es immer noch einen Überdruck im Gewebe, zunächst $$G_0′$$ (wiederum wird die Boyle-Kompensation unterschlagen) und im Folgenden fällt dieser exponentiell entsprechend der obigen Diffusionsgleichung auf 0. Somit ist das Zeit-Integral des Gradienten an der Oberfläche $$G_0’/\alpha_i$$. Nimmt man alles zusammen, ist das Kriterium für den neuen Gradienten $$G_0′$$

$$V\ge \frac{G_0′-G_0}{G_0′-\alpha G_{crush}} G_0′ \left(t_D +\frac 1{\alpha_i}\right)$$

Dies löst man nach $$G_0′$$ auf, was dann für einen neuen Dekoplan benutzt wird, der wiederum ein neues $$t_D$$ ergibt. Dieses Verfahren wiederholt man, bis sich $$G_0′$$ nicht mehr ändert.

Bis auf etwas Kleingedrucktes (wie etwa wie der Dekoplan aus dem Gradienten im Detail berechnet wird) ist dies der gesamte VPM-B Algorithmus. Mit diesen Informationen kann man ihn im Prinzip selber implementieren.

In einem zukünftigen Post plane ich dann die Physik anzusehen, die aufgerufen wird, um die hier verwendeten Gleichungen herzuleiten.

## VPM-B Gradients as Gradient factors

In a comment, Rick suggested that given that in the end, VPM-B computes depth dependent maximal gradients, one could compare those to the depth dependent gradients computed from the Buehlmann model and expressed as gradient factors (i.e. as percentage of the gradient of a plain vanilla Buehlmann gradient). Here is what I found when I did this.

For concreteness, I computed deco schedules with Subsurface for a dive to 120m leaving the bottom at runtime 20min with TMX18/50 (yes, I know this is far too much pO2, but for deco that does not matter), EAN50 and EAN100. For some reason, my ascent speeds are set to 9m/min up to 75% average depth, then 6m/min up to 6m and 1m/min for the final ascent. With Bühlmann with GF 30/80, I obtain a plan that reaches the surface at a runtime of 188min while for VPM-B+1 it takes only 141min.

Actually, I patched subsurface a little bit (see this branch on github) that, during deco, it prints out the allowed gradient for all tissues at all deco stops. This output I ran thru a mathematica notebook  to produce these plots:

On the x-axis, we have depth in meters while on the y-axis, we have the current gradient factor. The different colored dots are the different tissues (red being those with the shortest halft-time) with the thick dot indicating the leading tissue, i.e. the tissue that is causing the current stop.

The first diagram is Bühlmann while the second is VPM-B.

A few remarks are in order: First, why is Bühlmann not a single line from GF 30 to GF 40? This is because of the way I compute things: The exact Bühlmann a and b coefficients depend on the gas mixture currently in the tissue. In addition, what is actually computed is the maximal ambient pressure at the ceiling (which is the current depth only for the leading tissue) for that tissue and the gradient I plot is the difference between that and the current ambient pressure. So this is not exactly the right thing for tissues that are not leading. But still we see, it is a nice band of values and they all nicely move between 30% and 80%.

For the VPM-B plot, on the other hand, we see that the variation within a tissue is much less but the gradient factor varies a lot more between tissues. After all, the actual variation in gradient factor with depth comes about mainly because the leading tissue is changing and much less from the cubic curve that implements the Boyle compensation.

The other thing that is striking is the scale: At the last deco stop, the effective gradient factor is 124% for the leading tissue (while for some slower ones it is as high 180% (which never matters as that tissue never leads). In fact, a Bühlmann plan with GF 20/125 leads to a very similar profile.

Here are the actual profiles: First, Bühlmann GF 30/80

 Depth Duration Runtime Gas ➘ 120m 7min 7min (18/50) ➙ 120m 13min 20min ➚ 51m 9min 29min – 51m 2min 31min ➚ 48m 1min 32min – 48m 1min 32min ➚ 45m 1min 33min – 45m 2min 34min ➚ 42m 1min 35min – 42m 2min 36min ➚ 39m 1min 37min – 39m 4min 40min ➚ 36m 1min 41min – 36m 3min 43min ➚ 33m 1min 44min – 33m 4min 47min ➚ 30m 1min 48min – 30m 6min 53min ➚ 27m 1min 54min – 27m 6min 59min ➚ 24m 1min 60min – 24m 10min 69min ➚ 21m 1min 70min – 21m 5min 74min EAN50 ➚ 18m 1min 75min – 18m 7min 81min ➚ 15m 1min 82min – 15m 8min 89min ➚ 12m 1min 90min – 12m 13min 102min ➚ 9m 1min 103min – 9m 20min 122min ➚ 6m 1min 123min – 6m 20min 142min EAN100 ➚ 3m 3min 145min – 3m 40min 185min ➚ 0m 3min 188min

Then VPM-B+1:

 Depth Duration Runtime Gas ➘ 120m 7min 7min (18/50) ➙ 120m 13min 20min ➚ 63m 7min 27min – 63m 1min 28min ➚ 57m 1min 29min – 57m 1min 30min ➚ 54m 1min 31min – 54m 1min 31min ➚ 51m 1min 32min – 51m 2min 33min ➚ 48m 1min 34min – 48m 1min 34min ➚ 45m 1min 35min – 45m 2min 36min ➚ 42m 1min 37min – 42m 2min 38min ➚ 39m 1min 39min – 39m 3min 41min ➚ 36m 1min 42min – 36m 3min 44min ➚ 33m 1min 45min – 33m 3min 47min ➚ 30m 1min 48min – 30m 4min 51min ➚ 27m 1min 52min – 27m 5min 56min ➚ 24m 1min 57min – 24m 7min 63min ➚ 21m 1min 64min – 21m 4min 67min EAN50 ➚ 18m 1min 68min – 18m 5min 72min ➚ 15m 1min 73min – 15m 6min 78min ➚ 12m 1min 79min – 12m 8min 86min ➚ 9m 1min 87min – 9m 12min 98min ➚ 6m 1min 99min – 6m 15min 113min EAN100 ➚ 3m 3min 116min – 3m 22min 138min ➚ 0m 3min 141min

Finally Bühlmann 20/125:

 Depth Duration Runtime Gas ➘ 120m 7min 7min (18/50) ➙ 120m 13min 20min ➚ 54m 8min 28min – 54m 1min 29min ➚ 51m 1min 30min – 51m 2min 31min ➚ 48m 1min 32min – 48m 1min 32min ➚ 45m 1min 33min – 45m 2min 34min ➚ 42m 1min 35min – 42m 2min 36min ➚ 39m 1min 37min – 39m 2min 38min ➚ 36m 1min 39min – 36m 3min 41min ➚ 33m 1min 42min – 33m 3min 44min ➚ 30m 1min 45min – 30m 5min 49min ➚ 27m 1min 50min – 27m 5min 54min ➚ 24m 1min 55min – 24m 6min 60min ➚ 21m 1min 61min – 21m 4min 64min EAN50 ➚ 18m 1min 65min – 18m 4min 68min ➚ 15m 1min 69min – 15m 7min 75min ➚ 12m 1min 76min – 12m 8min 83min ➚ 9m 1min 84min – 9m 13min 96min ➚ 6m 1min 97min – 6m 12min 108min EAN100 ➚ 3m 3min 111min – 3m 21min 132min ➚ 0m 3min 135min

## Shortening deco by diving deeper

In VPM-B you can shorten your deco by doing another dive before.  Sounds crazy? But this is what this model predicts as I recently learned from Subsurface user who thought he was reporting a bug. To be concrete, let’s plan an air dive to 40m with 30min bottom time (just for concreteness, maybe this is not the optimal gas choice but let’s keep things simple, the argument does not depend on this). With conservatism +2 we get the following plan
<
Runtime: 93min

 depth duration runtime gas ➘ 40m 2min 2min air ➙ 40m 28min 30min – 18m 6min 36min – 15m 4min 40min – 12m 6min 46min – 9m 8min 54min – 6m 13min 67min – 3m 23min 90min ➚ 0m 3min 93min

But then add a 60m for 30m dive a bit less than two days (this is the limit that Subsurface considers two dives “repetitive diving”) before and you get:

Subsurface dive plan (surface interval 44:00)
Runtime: 78min

 depth duration runtime gas ➘ 40m 2min 2min air ➙ 40m 28min 30min – 15m 8min 38min – 12m 5min 43min – 9m 6min 49min – 6m 9min 58min – 3m 17min 75min ➚ 0m 3min 78min

So, you get out of the water 15 minutes earlier! From the point of view of a Bühlmann-type model this sounds totally ridiculous: You would think that the effect of the previous dive is to add inert gas saturation to your tissues and indeed, even for VPM-B that is the case, but the consequences are opposite. The reason is that the previous dive sets the “maximal crushing pressure” and thus the “crushing radius” at the deepest point of the dive. And, as you know from a previous post, this enters the maximal gradient (at least the initial one) that VPM-B will allow you: Translated into gradient factors, without previous dive, Subsurface computes effective GFs as 24/71 versus as a second dive 26/92.

I was even more surprised that in the VPM-B literature this is considered a feature rather than a bug of the model: The previous dive pre-compresses the bubbles and thus they are less dangerous (or something like this). See the very last paragraph of this article.

Actually, to see this behaviour in Subsurface, you cannot use the latest version (or you have to comment out  the lines
 for (ci = 0; ci < 16; ci++) { max_n2_crushing_pressure[ci] = 0.0; max_he_crushing_pressure[ci] = 0.0; } 

in the function clear_vpmb_state() in deco.c as I did)  as we decided this is too odd and rather opted for the more conservative option to reset the crushing pressure between dives. But that of course poses the question “What is exactly ‘between dives’?”. Is a short visit to the surface starting a second dive and thus magically resetting the state of bubbles in your body?

And of course the underlying question remains (until somebody does an empirical study): Can you really shorten the deco time by pre-compressing the diver?

It doesn’t even have to be a separate dive. According to VPM-B, I can bounce to 60m and immediately return back to 40m and then I get the benefit of shorter deco (compared to the version of the dive where I stayed at 40m):

Runtime: 79min

 depth duration runtime gas ➘ 60m 3min 3min air ➚ 40m 2min 5min ➙ 40m 25min 30min – 15m 8min 38min – 12m 5min 43min – 9m 6min 49min – 6m 10min 59min – 3m 17min 76min ➚ 0m 3min 79min