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A typical automotive catalytic converter is constructed with a ceramic substrate and a steel shell. Due to a mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion, the steel shell will expand away from the ceramic substrate at high temperatures. The gap between the substrate and shell is usually filled with a fiber composite material referred to as “mat.” Mat materials are compressed during assembly and must maintain an adequate pressure around the substrate under extreme temperature conditions. The container deformation measurement procedure is used to determine catalytic converter shell expansion during and after a period of hot catalytic converter operation. This procedure is useful in determining the potential physical durability of a catalytic converter system, and involves measuring converter shell expansion as a function of inlet temperature. A post-test dimensional measurement is used to determine permanent container deformation.

An increasing number of passenger vehicle exhaust systems incorporate catalytic converters that are “close-coupled” to the exhaust manifold to further reduce the quantity of cold-start emissions and increase overall catalyst conversion efficiencies. In general, close-coupled catalytic converters are not necessarily subjected to higher inlet exhaust temperatures than conventional underbody catalytic converters. To establish a foundation of on-vehicle temperature data, several passenger vehicles with close-coupled catalytic converters were studied while operating on a chassis dynamometer. Converter temperatures were measured over a variety of vehicle test conditions, including accelerations and extended steady-state speeds for several throttle positions, at both zero- and four-percent simulated road grades.