Meeting Heat Flow Challenges in Automotive Catalyst Design with CFD

This paper sets out, some of the aspects of designing an automotive catalytic convertor. The application of Computational Fluid Dynamics, or CFD, to convertors is discussed and then an actual example where CFD has been employed is presented. A close coupled catalytic convertor, used with a turbocharged engine, benefited from a series of analyses intended to establish the heat and mass flow characteristics of the design. Two sets of results are discussed. The example shows that the analysis technique has already been developed to a state that is useful for industrial applications. CFD has been used as an additional tool for quantifying the performance of a particular design and for comparing different alternatives. The limitations and assumptions of this analysis technique are mentioned along with a summary of the future advances that would particularly help the prediction of heat and mass flows in a convertor.