Exploitable results Foam Filter for Diesel Emission Reduction The final STYFF-DEXA project Diesel particulate filter prototype has been manufactured to assess the simulation capability of the software tool and to demonstrate the potential of ceramic foams based filters. The prototype has been designed to minimize the pressure drop without jeopardizing the filtration efficiency performance using a novel design approach: the slits concept and the drilled foams concept. Using the slits concept design the outlet filtering area is increased, not affecting the overall filter volume: by means of lateral slits along the foam stacks a considerable pressure drop decrease is achieved. The other innovative design concept tested at the moment only at laboratory scale, is the drilled foams concept; the filtering area is thus maximised with no increase of the filter volume by inserting a variable number of drilled foams at the inlet side of the filter; this results in a pressure drop reduction without compromising the filtration efficiency. Lab-scale test have been carried out to assess the filtration efficiency of a single foams stack with four drilled foams at the inlet and the preliminary results show an impressive pressure drop decrease as well as an improved or at least equal filtration efficiency capability especially at low flow rates. The final prototype manufacturing has been meant to account the flexibility requirements for a Diesel particulate filter using seven modular foam stacks. Every stack can hold up to 15 ceramic foams with an external diameter of 48 mm and a thickness of 15 mm; the geometry of the developed device implies the possibility of particulate uneven distribution in the different foam stacks: in particular it appears possible to have a preferential flow path in the central foam stack directly exposed to the inlet gas flow. To discern this issue, fluid-dynamic simulation has been performed and experimental verified: the results show a very good flow distribution in the different foam stacks as designed. In terms of filtration efficiency, soot accumulation and regeneration capabilities, the STYFF-DEXA project prototype has been tested on a 1.9 l, 16 valves, common rail Diesel, EuroIV compliant engine. The filtration efficiency results are quite encouraging both in particulate mass and particulate number/size; the pressure drop in real conditions is still slightly high compared to a standard wall-flow filter, especially at high engine speed and torque, anyhow the possibility to introduce the drilled foams concept even in the full scale prototype could reduce significantly the pressure drop level. The most impressive results achieved are indeed from the point of view of filter regeneration behaviour; the performed soot accumulation up to 8 g/l and regeneration tests show a very good regeneration rate although the used foams were bare foams. In conclusion, for future real application a performances improvement of the foams based filter will be required, anyway, further filter design enhancement and the introduction-catalysed foams could improve significantly the achieved overall foams filter performances. Foam-based catalytic soot collector At the end of the project, ArM will use the expertise gained for further design and development foam based catalytic component. Already the work done so far underlines the potential of foam materials for soot filtration applications. To this regard, the capability to predict the soot collection behaviour according to the intrinsic mater characteristics offers new possibilities to design a product for series applications. ArM has recognized this opportunity and since the end of the project a person has been place in charge for the development of foam filters on a full-time basis. Support from the design department and the prototype shop has also been ensured and planned. External measurements are already ongoing at e traditional partner of the DEXA cluster (CUTEC-Claustal). In addition, the experience and the know-how gained in this project will also be beneficial for a German (BMBF) and a British (DTI) founded projects involving the implementation for series applications of foam filters for particle filtration. Software for Simulating Particle Deposition and Soot Burn off in Foam Filters A user-friendly simulation package for analysis and design of Diesel exhaust gas after treatment systems has been developed. The software called DexaSIM consists of a graphical user interface (GUI), which provides to the user a simple and effective tool to quickly model and simulate an exhaust pipeline, in which the Open Source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flow solver OpenFoam and the Lattice-Boltzmann-Method (LBM) based solver PYCE, which was developed during the course of the STYFF-DEXA project, are embedded. DexaSIM is comfortable to use even for non-CFD experts. DexaSIM contains all necessary elements for modelling the key components of Diesel exhaust systems, such as pipe systems, catalysts and particulate filters. Furthermore modules are provided to analyse porous material structures as can be found in catalysts and filters and to reconstruct three-dimensional computational models there from. New materials can be designed artificially based on statistical functions, which are used to characterise the porous structures. The detailed microscopic flow analysis of the material using the Lattice-Boltzmann-Method provides macroscopic quantities such as porosity and permeability for OpenFoam, which treats the porous material as a homogeneous flow region. Furthermore models for soot deposition and filter regeneration are provided in DexaSIM. They have been partially extensively validated using experimental data of the other project partners. An acoustics module based on the solution of the wave equation completes the software portfolio. This can be run on the same computational models as used for OpenFoam and PYCE to analyse the acoustic characteristics of porous material. The beta-release of DexaSIM is now under testing by the project partners. The feedback received so far is very positive. According to the opinion of all partners, DexaSIM today represents the most advanced and efficient software tool for performing research and development work on exhaust gas after treatment systems. DexaSIM will be actively marketed and sold by an engine R&D center which distributes automotive software on a world-wide basis. Negotiations concerning this are currently in progress. An analysis of the passenger car Diesel market has shown that approximately 1000 potential prospects (licence sales) exist and that with an anticipated reachable market share of 30% total revenues of 6 Mio. Euro from licence sales and an annual turnover from maintenance business in the order of 1 Mio. Euro can be expected. Besides the passenger car Diesel market with minor modifications DexaSIM can be used also for heavy duty and large Diesel engine exhaust gas after treatment systems. Furthermore, due to the more and more stringent exhaust gas regulations of gasoline engines, potential for DexaSIM is also seen in this field. Other areas such as exhaust gas purification of power plants, waste incineration or chemical engineering plants could be addressed with DexaSIM in the mid-term future. As such the market potential of the software is enormous. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
