Development of an Automated Control System for a Specialized Foam Lifter With Thermal Imaging Feedback for Extinguishing Fires in Tank Parks

The article is devoted to the development of the hardware and software architecture of a specialized foam lifter adapted for the implementation of the interval cooling algorithm when extinguishing oil product fires in tank farms at the facilities of the fuel and energy complex. The methodological basis of the study was a stochastic spatially distributed model of the dynamics of resource flows, parameterized on the basis of the method of isomorphic flow models. The necessity of implementing an automated control system with support for time cycles «Feeding – pause – feeding» and equipping the foam lifter with a thermal imager with the function of feedback on the temperature of the tank wall is substantiated. Calculations using the integral indicator of resource distribution efficiency, based on the parameters of the isomorphic dynamic model, showed that switching to the interval mode allows reducing water consumption for cooling by 30–40 %, while the value of the efficiency indicator increases by 9 %. The main technical solutions adopted in the design of a pilot sample of a specialized foam lifter are described.