Abstract
Keywords Diesel; aftertreatment; DPF; regeneration; visualization
Abstract - Temperature is one of the most important parameters for operation of after-treatment devices such as oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filter etc. Many of the reactions taking place inside automotive aftertreatment catalysts or filters are highly exothermic (from the oxidation of CO, hydrocarbons oxidation, soot regeneration etc.), resulting in high levels of heat release, such that the measured temperature can be used as an effective tool for investigation/monitoring these aftertreatment devices. Extremely high temperatures developed inside catalysts or filters may compromise the catalyst or substrate durability, or even remove the complete functionality that is being supported.
That is why monitoring internal temperatures is very important for diagnostics of the functionality and status of the aftertreatment device. In addition, temperature is one of the internal parameters of a catalyst or filter, which can be measured relatively easy during experiments with real-size aftertreatment systems performed on the engine dynamometer or vehicle.
The presented paper shows examples of visualization of the exothermic reactions occurring inside catalysts and particulate filters used for automotive exhaust gas aftertreatment.
To make visualization effective, a number of the internal sensors, in this case thermocouples has to be installed within the catalyst or particulate filter. For visualization, standard software tools such as Matlab can be used or others where appropriate. Information can be visualized either by post-processing of the collected data, or on-line.
Data was collected during the engine dynamometer studies and vehicle evaluations of different aftertreatment systems included catalysts and diesel particulate filters.
In the presentation, different examples are given of how visualization of the temperatures can help to understand functionality of catalysts or diesel particulate filters. Results are presented in form of the temperature movies, synchronized with dynamics of other variables such as pressure drop etc., analyzed for different modes of operation of a diesel particulate filter.