Transient Flow Simulations in Exhaust After Treatment Systems

The exhaust after treatment system is responsible for removing particulates and contaminants from the exhaust gases. The flow entering the SCR, a catalyst utilizing ammonia to reduce NOx emissions, was studied. The quality and distribution of flow entering the SCR plays an important role in the efficiency of the systems. A CFD study was completed initially investigating the impact on solution accuracy of different modeling approaches with respect to pressure drop and flow uniformity entering SCRs. Next, multi-species simulations were completed to analyze different modeling approaches impact on ammonia distribution and flow rates through SCRs. RANS, URANS, and DES simulations were compared in both stages. An in depth analysis of the current methodology utilized at Scania to investigate pressure drop and velocity uniformity index concluded that there is minimal benefit in changing the current methodology. DDES and URANS simulations yielded results containing less than 2% difference when compared with the current methodology. Expanding the investigation to include ammonia mixing yielded interesting disparities between simulation methods with respect to multispecies flow characteristics. This difference was attributed to disparities between the initial mixing of ammonia within the domain. The RANS and URANS simulations contained a much larger dispersion of ammonia, accredited to an increased false diffusion. DDES simulations are very computationally costly but by following time reducing processes, DDES simulations could be used early in the design and analysis phase of exhaust after treatment systems to analyze ammonia distribution and mixing