CFD MODELING OF THE REGENERATION PROCESS IN DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTER USING FLUENT

Diesel engine particulate filters every year are becoming more popular. The new EURO 5 standard is very restrictive for particulates and this will force the use of particulate filter in every engine. Filters operate very good when they are loaded with small quantity of soot particles and they must be cleaned from time to time by burning out soot inside the filter. This process is called filter regeneration. During regeneration high temperature zones may occur in the filter which may change the properties of porous material and even cause its damage. The regeneration process should be effective at different engine operational conditions in which temperature and oxygen concentration vary. The experimental determination of optimal conditions for regeneration is very difficult and expensive. The simpler and less expensive is computer modeling. In this paper computer simulation of regeneration process of diesel particulate filter with the use of FLUENT code is described. A two-dimensional model assumes soot and filter wall as a porous materials of different permeability. The influence of soot parameters, filter material, composition and temperature of combustion products as well as activation energy on regeneration process was studied