SwRI to provide improved battlefield fuel supply system for U.S. Army

San Antonio -- July 9, 2003 -- Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®) will demonstrate a new, highly mobile system to supply fuel and water for rapidly advancing U.S. Army tanks, trucks and troops.

Under a two-year, $4.65 million contract with the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), SwRI will build and demonstrate a prototype Rapidly Installed Fluid Transfer System (RIFTS), which consists of continuous flexible hose line with pumping stations, leak-detection equipment and a command module.

Existing systems for supplying fuel and water to deployed units are aging and may not be mobile enough to support future fast-moving force projections like those seen during the recent action in Iraq, said project manager John Roberts of the Unmanned Systems and Sensors Section of SwRI's Aerospace Electronics and Information Technology Division. The existing system uses 19-foot sections of rigid pipe that must be carried on trucks, unloaded by hand and joined with clamps that can leak if the pipe deflection exceeds the allowable angle. Fuel supply lines can be moved forward only about three to five miles in a day with the existing system.

The RIFTS system uses flexible hose carried on a truck-mounted reel and can be deployed by two people at a rate of a mile every [RL1]30 minutes, according to Roberts. Pumps are installed every two to five miles, depending on terrain, to maintain pressure from the point of origin to the tactical petroleum and water terminals. The system is deployed in 50-mile sets.

"It can basically go anywhere in the world," Roberts said, explaining that the system can operate at temperatures from minus 40 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and at elevations from sea level to 9,000 feet.

Built primarily with commercially available components and integrated by SwRI, RIFTS is equipped with a leak sensing system that can detect and locate leaks as small as 0.4 percent of flow rate, or less than four gallons per minute when the pipeline is carrying 800 gallons per minute, Roberts said. Additionally, the system can be remotely monitored and centrally controlled from the command module using wireless communication.

Although it somewhat resembles a fire hose, the 6-inch diameter fuel line is larger and more rugged, operating at pressures from 350-750 pounds per square inch (psi) compared to 100-150 psi for a fire hose. Using higher pressure hose reduces the number of pumping stations required for a given deployment.

For more information contact Roberts at (210) 522-3884 or e-mail jroberts@swri.org.

For more information, contact Joe Fohn, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas, 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-4630, Fax (210) 522-3547.

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