Drying parameters of the fire hose and selection of appropriate dryer

Natural drying is currently being used in order to dry for the fire hoses which are used for fire extinguishing, water drawing, etc. in fire stations. The fire intervention hoses, which are cleaned and maintained at the fire stations after using, needs to be stored by drying for a long life. The aim is to store the hoses according to the laying methods, which are among the techniques determined to delay the wear of the hoses and to dry the water inside them, to reduce the weight of the hoses and thus ensure the fastest use during the event. In the current situation, alternative methods are needed due to the fact that the natural drying is slow and effected easily from the weather conditions. With this study, alternative drying methods to natural drying were investigated. In this way, it is aimed to decrease energy and inefficient working hours by saving energy and time. Drying was applied to fire intervention hoses, which provided water absorption for 30, 60 and 90 minutes using a microwave dryer and band tunnel type dryer. Experiments were carried out at 120 W, 350 W and 460 W power values in microwave dryers and at 50 ⁰C, 60 ⁰C and 70 ⁰C temperature in band type tunnel dryers. According to the results moisture analysis, energy consumption analysis, thermal measurements, strength analysis, SEM images are evaluated, additively drying rate calculation, diffusion coefficient and activation energy were also calculated. In addition, Approximation of Diffusion, Verma et al., Two Term Exponantial, Henderson and Pabis, Newton, Wang & Singh, Midilli et al., Copace, and Logarithmic models were used to the modeling results, it was understood that the most suitable model for this study is Logarithmic. The least energy consumption and the shortest drying time was observed in an experiment with a 460 W power of microwave dryer. When all the results of the experiments are evaluated, it is understood that different drying times and different energy consumption are observed since the mechanisms of two types of drying are different, but in general, microwave drying is faster than band type drying.