A Study on Decisional Factors for Service Life of Fire Trucks

Abstract

The lifetime of fire trucks depends on their built-in pumps. A fire truck delivers water to the site of a fire accident via its pump that is composed of an impeller and a casing. As its service time increases, the clearance between the two elements increases. This causes leakage in the pump to increase beyond its limit and the pump can no longer fulfill its principal role. In general, fatigue, erosion, and corrosion are considered to be the major mechanisms for pump failure. From this study, it has been observed that fatigue is not the main factor for failure because of the small magnitude of stress it induces. Erosion by particles shows a high erosion rate of the suction area of the impeller. Cavitation, which is a key mechanism of corrosion, is observed at a suction depth of 7 m and is observed to widen at 7.1 m depth. Finally, the lifetime of the fire trucks is found to be affected by the motion of sucking the natural water of ponds, rivers, etc.

Study on the Development of Multi-Purpose Fire Engines through Vehicle Safety Factor Design

“…Midsized pump engines [11] are the most basic type of fire engine and the most commonly used vehicles at fire stations. If these engines could be given an additional ladder function, the resulting multi-purpose engines would substitute for conventional engines and prevent the need for more engineers or garages.…”