Finite Element Method Applied to Diesel Particulate Filter Flow
Congress: ENCIT
ABSTRACT:
Nowadays, air pollution is one of the greatest problems faced by humanity and one of its main causes is the gases present in the vehicle’s exhaust. In order to mitigate these problems in diesel-fueled vehicles, it is usually used a device named Diesel Particulate Filter, also known as DPF, which is responsible for filtering the particulates contained in the exhausted air. Since currently there are very strict laws regulating the quantity of particulate which are being exhausted into the atmosphere, it is very important to study this device to ensure its performance and to make improvements possible. So, to study the flow behavior inside this device, this work aims to develop a computational code using a CFD approach. This case was modeled as a single-phase air flow inside the device and the air was modeled as an incompressible Newtonian fluid. The governing equations of the flow are the Navier-Stokes equations and, since there is a porous media inside the DPF, the Darcy-Forchheimer model is used in the Navier-Stokes equations to represent the effects of this region. The Finite Element Method (FEM) was the numerical method used, using a semi-Lagrangian method to discretize the derivative material and the Galerkin approximation to discretize the other terms in the spatial domain. After all, it is necessary to verify if the code provides results consistent with reality. In order to do that, it is simulated cases in which the results are well established in the literature, making it possible to compare code and literature results and to verify the results’ consistency. This verification shows that the code is highly reliable.