Evaluation of Performance of DPF Cell Structure for Soot Loading, Regeneration and Pressure Drop Using CFD Simulation 2017-26-0111

In recent times diesel powered vehicles are becoming popular due to improved performance and reduced exhaust emission with this the market share of diesel passenger cars expected to approach 60 % over the next few years. In compliance with future emission standards for diesel powered vehicles, it is required to use diesel particulate filters (DPF) along with other exhaust emission control devices. There is a need for more optimized DPF cell structure to collect maximum soot load with low pressure drop and improved exhaust performance from diesel vehicles in Indian driving conditions.

In this thesis paper a detailed parametric study have been carried out on different DPF cell structures like Square, Hexagonal and combined cell geometry. The performances of different cell structure has been evaluated for maximum soot loading capacity and regeneration rate, pressure drop, temperature distribution across cell structure. Experimental study on four cylinder diesel engine has been carried out on a test bed under standard driving cycle for base line cell structure to get soot load and pressure drop characteristics. A steady state CFD simulation has been carried out on baseline and different cell structure using AVL fire. Temperature distribution across a cell structure has been obtained under maximum soot loading condition to analyze the thermal stability of DPF. CFD simulations were correlated with experimental result for the evaluation of DPF performance with different cell structure.

A numerical and experimental investigation has been successfully carried out on various cell structure configurations for DPF of Diesel engine and pressure drop performance, soot load capacity and thermal stability during regeneration has been evaluated. From the parametric studies it was found that Hex 3 DPF cell structure has got maximum soot load and low pressure drop characteristics compared to other DPF cell structure, hence Hex 3 DPF cell structure is suggested for Diesel vehicles incompliance with present and future emission norms for reduced Particulate matter emissions.