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Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) systems are required to function in cold ambient temperatures below the freezing point of DEF. Manufacturers may demonstrate compliance by following an EPA guidance procedure described below [2], using whole vehicles at winter test sites at −18 deg C or lower. However, commercial trucks may have multiple variants with different DEF system layouts, so it is impractical to test every possible configuration. A climatic chassis dynamometer (CCD) can also be used for this test, but this is still expensive and time consuming, and does not address the problem of complexity. Instead, much time and expense can be saved by using simulation methods to identify worst case configurations, and to demonstrate with confidence that a limited number of tests will cover the whole possible range. This methodology can further be used to show that a range of vehicles can be represented with selected rig tests in a cold chamber.

The desire to reduce NOx at low ambient temperatures drives the use of heating methods to make DEF available by thawing the solution in the tank. Methods to validate modelling used to design hardware options require testing to gauge the accuracy of the prediction. Using a climatic chassis dynamometer (CCD) to demonstrate the guidance procedure set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expensive and time consuming. A method of utilizing a flow controlled cooling supply combined with a standard cold chamber is described as a precursor to running the demonstration in the CCD. Testing multiple quantities of design iterations produced unexpected variation in the results. The sources of the variation and modifications taken to minimize them are discussed and presented. Test to test control of coolant flow, coolant temperature, and specific chamber temperature inconsistencies were found to be critically important to a successful effort.