Hybrid Flow Modelling Approach Applied to Automotive Catalysts

Catalytic converters are employed in automotive emissions aftertreatment for the reduction of pollutants.Flow behaviour in a catalyst system may be modelled using computational uid dynamics.This study concerns a planar catalytic converter system with a wide-angled planar diuser understeady ow conditions, in which the ow is approximately two-dimensional. The catalyst monolith ismodelled using a novel hybrid approach. Individual channels at the entrance to the substrate providean accurate description of ow upon entrance to the monolith. A porous region then applies themacroscopic pressure drop on the fully developed ow. Flow predictions are compared with experimentaldata in the diuser and downstream of the monolith. Overall, the hybrid model improvesupon the separate use of the two approaches. The variance of downstream velocity predictions fromexperimental data is decreased by up to 50% compared to the porous medium model, whilst the computationaldemand is reduced by approximately one order of magnitude compared to the individualchannels model.
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Applied Mathematical Modelling Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Applied Mathematical Modelling, VOL 40, ISSUE 19-20, (2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.apm.2016.04.024

© 2016, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/