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The life of DPF would be decided by ash durability because pressure loss of DPF is increased by accumulation of ash that is produced when soot is burnt in the DPF. We could succeed to increase maximum ash capacity and extend the life of the DPF by an approach from the filter design, making inlet cell volume larger than outlet cell. Furthermore, when the inlet cell is designed octagon, we found that slanted wall blocking the inlet cells is functional worked for soot filtration. As the results, we could improve to manage both transient pressure loss while the soot is collected and the ash durability by the cell shape with (inlet cell/outlet cell) = (octagon/square).

The pore diameter and porosity of SiC-DPF has been increased by elaborating its porous structure. Increasing the porosity of DPF decreases its strength and thermal conductivity. It was clarified how these characteristics affect the performance such as filtration characteristics, low pressure loss, maximum soot loading limit, and thermal response characteristics required for DPF. It was found that the basic characteristics of SiC such as high strength and high thermal conductivity play an important role in its high porosity.

One technology for removing PM discharged from diesel-powered vehicles is the DPF system. The DPF system brings about increases in pressure loss because PM accumulates in the filter. DPF with a high cell density shows low pressure loss when PM accumulates because of the large filtration area, and in addition, it makes it possible to thin the cell wall because it has a high thermal diffusion ability. For the catalyzation of SiC, the pore size and porosity of the base material were changed. Even when a catalyst is borne, pressure loss which DPF changed pore structure hardly changes. This verification was done based on the theory and by means of experimentation.

In Europe, where diesel engine cars enjoy widely popularity, the major diesel-engine car manufacturers have already announced that they will equip their diesel engine vehicles with DPF systems. Silicon carbide(SiC) has good fundamental properties. And the crack problem during regeneration could be successfully controlled by using split-type DPF which consists of multiple filter segments. The functional characteristics were focused on. For DPF, a model test by which events that may actually occur on vehicles can be produced is said to have not yet been established. From this point of view, in this study, SiC-DPF functions are characterized and evaluated under a regeneration system, and their correlation is discussed.

A heater type automatic regeneration system able to be mounted on an automobile has been developed by utilizing the characteristics of SiC-DPF (Diesel Particulate Filters made of Silicon Carbide). In this development, in order to apply the system to wide applications, the main objective was to focus on reducing the regenerating electric power consumption. For the reduction of the power consumption, realization of a low pressure drop system effect by making the DPF structure high density and improvement of the axial insulation, controlling the gas flow velocity by a general purpose exhaust brake, saving of the electric power by using a DC heater driver utilizing MOSFETs (Metal Oxide semi-conductor field-effect transistor). As a result, a SiC-DPF heater unit usable in wide range of applications has successfully been developed.

We studied the use of SiC porous material for diesel particulate filters. Crystallities of SiC grow into hexagonal plates during sintering,but their sizes have not been controllable yet. We developed a production process that makes the average pore diameter as desired in limiting the pore size distribution to a narrow range. Diesel particulate filters made of SiC greatly reduce pressure loss even when a large quantity of particulates accumulates as compared with conventional wall-flow type filter of cordierite of the same size. This enables particulate filter to be made smaller. The good thermal conductivity of SiC allows fast regeneration without a temperature spike, but its large coefficient of thermal expansion causes heat cracks during rig tests and engine bench tests. The rig tests showed that the heat cracking problem can be solved if the length and diameter are below a certain threshold for each.

The characteristics of a new diesel particulate filter material made of SiC were studied through engine tests in varying material properties, such as average pore diameter, and wall thickness. Compared to a conventional cordierite filter of the same size, particulate trapping efficiency is almost the same, and the pressure loss and the deterioration of fuel consumption can be reduced to about half with the optimum material properties. If the same pressure loss is allowed, the filter size can be reduced by 30%. Its good thermal conductivity prevents local temperature increases, which doubles the permissible amount of trapped particulates. As heat crack problems occurred in integral-type filters due to the high thermal expansion of SiC, a split-type filter having 49 filter segments with a square section was developed.