Investigations into Lubricant Blocking of Diesel Particulate Filters

Operational Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) technology traps and oxidizes soot particulate, lowering particulate emissions. Additionally they trap other non combustible material which is deposited as ash within the filter. The trapping of this material leads to increased backpressure on the engine, giving an increase in fuel consumption, and requires periodic servicing to remove. This work demonstrates the emission effects of this increase in backpressure and develops a method of realistically accelerating this ash deposition mechanism yielding a bench test for the study of this phenomenon.