Experimental and CFD investigation of re-agent mixing in an SCR system
Date
2007
Authors
Ivaturi, Krishna, author
Olsen, Daniel B., advisor
Mitchell, Charles E., committee member
Meroney, Robert, committee member
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Abstract
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) cause a gamut of problems such as harmful particulate matter, ground level ozone (smog) and acid rain. Currently, a significant capital is being invested researching new techniques to control NOx emissions. One of the best ways to breakdown NOx is the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) after-treatment method. A reducing agent (re-agent) is injected into exhaust gases and passed through a catalyst that facilitates NOx breakdown into Nitrogen and Water. To ensure effective NOx conversion, there must be uniform mixing between re-agent and exhaust gas upstream of the catalyst blocks. The current thesis focuses on investigating the mixing quality for an SCR test system employed for a 2-stroke lean-bum natural gas engine. CFD investigations were conducted to simulate the physical flow process. The mixing quality for different injector locations and the effect of utilizing a downstream in-line mixer was investigated. The CFD simulations were compared to experimental results. To measure ammonia concentrations experimentally, a traversing probe was designed and built. Re-agent concentrations were measured at various locations on a plane slightly upstream of the catalyst substrate. Detailed discussion is presented on different cases of CFD analysis. Experiments were conducted for the best and worst case of mixing based on CFD computation. Results suggest that a mixer plays a vita1 role in improving the mixing.
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Subject
Automobiles -- Motors -- Exhaust gas
Nitrogen oxides
Catalysis
Air -- Purification