The Environmental Extremes Lab houses two purpose-built environmental chambers, one that manipulates temperature and relative humidity and the other that simulates an altitude environment by controlling the hypoxic (low oxygen content) levels.
Environmental Chamber
The purpose-built environment chamber measures 47.25 m3 (4.5m x 3.5m x 3 mm) and the computer controls ambient temperature (-20°C to +50°C) and relative humidity (15% to 95%).
This purpose-built chamber supports a vast array of teaching, research and knowledge exchange activity exploring thermal stress and physiological function during rest and exercise and for health, occupational and sporting purposes. The chamber may be used for thermal screening, evaluating acute cooling or hydration interventions or for heat acclimation purposes.
Hypoxic Chamber
The hypoxic chamber measuring 35.84 m3 (3.2m x 4m x 2.8 m) can decrease the fractional concentration of inspired oxygen from 20.93% (normoxic) to 11% enabling the simulation of altitudes up to an equivalent of ~5000m.
This purpose-built chamber supports a considerable body of research activity allied to both sport and health purposes and may be used for screening for susceptibility to altitude illnesses, evaluating interventions (including from other stressors, e.g. heat – cross adaptation) and hypoxic training purposes.
Environmental Water Tank
The environmental water tank which measures 19.15 m3 (1.13m x 1.13m x 1.5 m) can contain a range of water temperatures (typically 10-40°C) for precooling and preheating manoeuvers, breath hold studies and underwater weighing for the determination of body density to subsequently determine body composition.
Portable Water Baths and Sauna Tents
We have a range of portable water baths and sauna tents that enable us to recreate environmental extremes out in the filed or in different locations.
