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A compact, knitted, crimped wiremesh mixer disposed in the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, between the reductant injection and the urea SCR unit, increases the uniformity of the reductant in the exhaust stream by the time the stream reaches the SCR catalysis unit. Wiremesh mixer enhances thermolysis of urea into ammonia and iso-cyanic acid (HNCO). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling shows improved uniformity index from 0.94 to 0.99 within 35 mm travel length due to longitudinal and radial flow of the exhaust gas through the body of the wiremesh mixer. The higher thermolysis and rapid warm-up nature of the wiremesh provides enhanced ammonia production from urea thermolysis. Wiremesh physical attributes such as material composition, geometry and structure, wire diameter, mesh crimp pitch, crimp depth, crimp angle and the contour are optimized for minimum back pressure and maximum mixing efficiency.

A combined Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation and physical fatigue testing of a passenger car exhaust system resonator with wire mesh seal between the inlet and outlet pipe is performed to evaluate the durability and improvise the design. The outlet pipe end cap of the exhaust system resonator deformed and cracked at the fillet region repeatedly upon the application of the maximum load from a pre developed accelerated specification test. However, the system meets the end usage on-road durability target of 5 years / 1,00,000 km. There is a gap between the accelerated bench test and the end usage durability target. The current study correlates CAE simulation and biaxial fatigue testing and improvise possible alternate resonator design. Conventionally, components passing the accelerated test always meets the end usage durability target whereas components meeting the end usage durability target need not necessarily pass the accelerated test.

An advanced three-way converter system with significant improvements in light-off performance, conversion efficiency, thermal stability and physical durability at high operating temperature is described. The converter system is comprised of a light-weight ceramic substrate with high surface area triangular cell structure, a new catalyst formulation with enhanced thermal stability and good substrate compatibility, and a durable packaging design which together lead to consistent improvements in high temperature performance and durability. Experimental data including FTP performance, canning trials, and high temperature vibration and thermal shock tests for both the advanced and standard three-way converter systems are presented.

Knitted wiremesh along with radial gas tight seals provide reliable mounting system for low temperature underbody converters. The compression characteristics of the wiremesh is modified by wire material, wire diameter, wire geometry, mesh crimp heights; wire density, wiremesh courses per inch, needle count, number of strands, wiremesh temper, wiremesh surface profile and surface characteristics. The radial mounting pressure provided by the wiremesh is matched with the mounting pressure requirement. Wiremesh systems can be tailored to any required radial mounting pressure from conventional to ultra thin-wall substrates. The wiremesh mounting system is proven durable, without any failure on more than 25 million underbody converters in light duty vehicles. Cp and Cpk show the capability of the manufacturing process. Thus the wiremesh mounting support is a viable alternate for low temperature gasoline and diesel applications.

Typically, the maximum converter skin temperature occurs when the catalytic converter is in the cool down process after the engine is shut-off. This phenomenon is called temperature soaking. This paper proposes a numerical method to simulate this process. The converter skin temperatures vs. time are predicted for the converter cool down process. The soaking phenomenon is observed and the maximum temperature is determined. Temperatures are also predicted for the exhaust gas, substrate, mounting mat and shell of the converter assembly. The numerical results are validated with measurements, and an acceptable correlation is achieved. This study focuses on converters with ceramic substrates; however, this methodology can also be used for converters with metallic substrates.

Simulation's drive towards reality boundary conditions is the toughest challenge. Experience has shown that often the most significant source of error in thermal and dynamic analyses is associated within specified boundary conditions. Typically, validating the system by considering both thermal and dynamic loads with predefined assumptions is time consuming and inconclusive when confronted with reality boundary conditions. Thus, the solution comes in unique way of combining thermal and dynamic loads with specified boundary conditions and will convey computational results closer to the real scenario. As a consequence, strain concentrated regions due to thermal expansion are aggregated more, when coupled with dynamic loading. The stress generated by the coupled analyses will prove to be critical in concerning the durability issue of the hot end system. These conditions are evaluated by a finite element model through linear and non-linear approaches and results summarized.

The trend lately has shifted towards usage of thin wall and ultra-thin wall substrates. This change has come to existence due to the increased acting surface area available in these substrates. However these types of substrates have reduced isostatic strength comparatively, reducing its canning durability. This phenomenon has induced a new canning methodology which shall not disturb the substrate integrity during canning and also perform effectively to the requirements. This can be achieved by controlled canning which includes a huge investment and so a new methodology has been devised using the available resources and a partial controlled canning process is established and verified for canning performance and found to be effective. The paper shall include the procedural explanation and a set of results obtained by the new methodology to support its effectiveness.

Automotive exhaust system components are exposed to many types of vibrations, from simple sinusoidal to maximum random excitations. Computer-Aided engineering (CAE) plays an inevitable role in design and validation of hot vibration shaker assembly. Key Life Test (KLT), an accelerated hot vibration durability test, is established to demonstrate the robustness of a catalytic converter. The conditions are chosen such a way that the parts which passes key life test will always pass in the field, whereas the parts which fail in the key life test need not necessarily fail in the field. The hot end system and the test assembly should survive in these aggressive targeted conditions. The test fixture should be much more robust than the components that it should not fail even if the components fail. This paper reveals the computational methodology adopted to address the design, development and validation of the test assembly.

Bending moment is one of the strongest pursuits in resonator's structural validation. Eigen problems play a key role in the stability and forced vibration analysis of structures. This paper explains the methodology to determine the weak points in the resonator assembly considering the additional effects of the installation forces and temperature impacts. Using strain energy plots, weakest part of the product is identified in the initial stage. The solution comes in unique way of utilizing the worst case scenarios possible. As a consequence, the stress generated by these analyses will prove to be critical in concerning the durability issue of the system. These conditions are evaluated by a finite element model through linear approaches and results are summarized.

A stochastic simulation based on the Monte-Carlo method was developed to study the effect of substrate, mounting mat and converter shell dimensional tolerances on the converter manufacturing process. Results for a stuffed converter with nominal gap bulk density (GBD) 1.00 g/cm3 show an asymmetric probability density function ranging from 0.90 to 1.13 g/cm3. Destructive and non-destructive GBD measurements on oval and round production converters show close correlation with the Monte-Carlo model. Several manufacturing options offering tighter GBD control based on component sorting and matching are described. Improvements ranging from 28% and 64% in GBD control are possible.