Analysis of Performance of Various Models of Copper Based Catalytic Converters by C.F.D. Techniques

Catalytic converters, fitted in series with the exhaust pipe of gasoline fueled vehicles, convert over 90 percent of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NO x) from the engine into less harmful carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen and water vapors. Since catalytic converters were first fitted to cars in 1974, more than 12 billion tons of harmful exhaust gases have been prevented from entering the earth’s atmosphere. More than 96 percent of cars manufactured today are equipped with catalytic converters. Most of the catalytic converters use platinum, Palladium & Rhodium as catalyst to bring about oxidation costly and rarely available. The scarcity and high demand of present catalyst materials necessitate the need for finding out the alternatives. Among all other particulate filter materials, knitted steel wire mesh material is selected as filter materials in this paper. Through CFD analysis, various models with different wire mesh grid size combinations were simulated using the appropriate boundary conditions. With the help of CFD analysis, it is attempted to find out the optimum solution to get maximum filtration efficiency. Amongst various constituents of exhaust gas, CO and NO are most dangerous pollutants from Global warming point of view. Thus this particular work is concentrated on analyzing filtration efficiency for these two pollutants.