This paper presents a computational model of the transient behaviour of trap systems. The model is applicable to various driving scenarios, vehicle, engine, and trap types, as well as different trap regeneration and protection techniques.
The model is synthesized from existing submodels covering the vehicle kinematics, diesel engine operation, trap operational characteristics, and the trap regeneration and protection hardware performance.
The model is applied to a parametric investigation of the transient operation of the Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics (LAT) trap oxidiser system fitted on a Mercedes 200D passenger car. The major tasks of the investigation were (a) the evaluation of the control philosophies as regards their influence on vehicle driveability, fuel consumption, and by-pass operation time, (b) the evaluation of protection techniques such as lambda-control and trap by-passing with the trap subjected to a number of failure scenarios.