Prediction of Flows in an Automotive Catalytic Converter

In this paper, predictions of laminar isothermal exhaust gas flows in an automotive catalytic converter are studied. The coupled calculations of incompressible viscous flows in the "porous medium−free flow" system were performed using generalized Navier-Stokes equations. The calculation algorithm for this model was implemented using the open software FEniCS. A typical converter geometry was considered in the two-dimensional planar formulation. Two cases with different monolith properties were calculated and compared. In the first case, the monolith was homogeneous and had the cell density of 400 CPSI (Cells per Square Inch) everywhere. In the second case, the monolith had two spatial zones − central and peripheral − which had cell densities of 900 CPSI and 400 CPSI, respectively. The calculations clearly demonstrated the possibility to control the flow uniformity in the monolith by constructing it with zones with different properties.