Thermal Management of Close Coupled Catalysts 1999-01-1231

The close coupled catalytic converter, together with the manifold and exhaust pipes, form a group of components that emit powerful heat energy. For temperature controle of the neighboring components, limiting the converter surface temperature in the same way as with underfloor systems will not be satisfactory for close-coupled converter systems, as the converter's surface temperature does not represent the only physical measure for assessing the thermal load on other components. Instead, it makes more sense, to control the heat output of the exhaust system and the heat transfer to the other components by choosing materials for the included surfaces which show good proporties to reduce radiative heat transfer.