Usually, the activation of DPF regeneration strategies is based on the estimation of the total particulate mass collected in the filter by means of the backpressure measure; no information concerning soot deposition profile on porous media is considered.
In this paper, a numerical procedure is used to investigate the influence of soot profile on overheating during the regeneration process inside a commercial Diesel Particulate Filter. At first, the soot deposition profile, identified by a low number of parameters, is computed basing on the engine operative conditions. Then, the regeneration process is simulated.
In this way, not only the amount of the total accumulated mass is taken into account, but the role of the shape of soot profile is accounted for. This allows to evaluate the correlation between the shape of collected particles layer and possible local overheating phenomena, which are very important to avoid critical thermal-structural stresses.
The final aim of this work is to obtain a control system able to start the regeneration not only basing on the filter backpressure, but also on the deposited soot profile. The 3D CFD model is presented and the obtained temperature fields are compared and discussed.