Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp.

168-173

Sensors & Transducers

2014 by IFSA Publishing, S. L.
http://www.sensorsportal.com

Simulation and Optimization of SCR System

for Direct-injection Diesel Engine
1
1

Guanqiang Ruan, 2 Zhendong Zhang, 1 Jinrun Cheng

Shanghai Dianji University, No. 88, Wenjing Road, Minhang District, Shangshi, 200245, China
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516, Jungong Road, Yangpu District,
Shangshi, 200093, China
1
Tel.: +86-021-64300980
E-mail: ruangq@sdju.edu.cn

Received: 24 July 2014 /Accepted: 30 October 2014 /Published: 30 November 2014

Abstract: The turbo diesel SCR system has been researched and analyzed in this paper. By using software of
CATIA, three-dimensional physical model of SCR system has been established, and with software of
AVL-FIRE, the boundary conditions have been set, simulated and optimized. In the process of SCR system
optimizing, it mainly optimized the pray angle. Compare the effects of processing NO to obtain batter
optimization results. At last the optimization results are compared by bench test, and the experimental results are
quite consistent with simulation. Copyright 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Keywords: SCR, Simulation, Optimization, Experiment.

1. Introduction
The diesel engine gets higher thermal efficiency,
lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions than the
gasoline engine. Presently the diesel engines are
applied in all of the heavy trucks and most of the
light truck. However, as the standard of diesel
emissions get to be more and more rigorous all
around the world, emission control of diesel
particulate matter (PM) and NOx becomes the key to
the development of diesel engine technology. Using
high pressure injection technology can reduce PM
emissions of combustion in cylinder, and then take
the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology
to control NOx as the main way of electronic-control
diesel engine exhaust gas processing [1]. The SCR
technology path is shown in Fig. 1.
But there are some problems in the matching
between the SCR and domestic diesel engine, the

168

optimization of SCR is imminent. In this article, with

the software of FIRE, it has simulated the SCR
process of exhaust, optimized the structure
parameters of SCR and verified by experiment at the
same time.

Fig. 1. SCR technology path.

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Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp. 168-173

2. The SCR Model

2.1. Model Analysis
The main parameters of SCR shape are: input
terminal diameter D1, connecting pipe diameter D2,
connecting boss small terminal diameter D3 and big
terminal diameter D4, catalytic converter cavity
forepart diameter D5 and posterior diameter, D6,
output terminal diameter D7, output boss small
terminal diameter D8 and big terminal diameter D9,
cavity minimum diameter Dmin and maximum
diameter Dmax, maximum depth Tmax. Use CATIA to
establish SCR sketches, and then set up 3-dimension
model of the SCR as shown in Fig. 2 below based on
the stereoscopic model function of CATIA.

Fig. 2. SCR three-dimensional model.

2.2. The Division of Grid

Export the 3-dimension model of the SCR
catalytic reactor from the CATIA, save as STL file.
Open FIRE and import the model. Choose the
selections, set the airway inlet and outlet. Choose the
demand of the grid, and then implement. Check the
quality of the grid to ensure correct. FIRE is powerful
software, in the simulation of SCR, there are three
major steps: first is the division of grid; second is to
import grid, set conditions, namely fluid properties,
boundary conditions, the control equation. The last is
calculation. As shown in Fig. 3 is the meshing result
of the SCR catalytic reactor in FIRE.

Fig. 3. The SCR grid.

2.3. The Initial Boundary Conditions

1) The initial conditions.
In this paper, it has simplify the design of the
intake and exhaust and SCR reactor, sets the reaction
time as 1 s, calculation range is set from 0 s to 1 s. In
the SCR module, the efficiency of catalytic reaction
has a lot to do with time, it need choose of step width
accurately, because the software needs to add a
certain number to repeat operations in the process of
numerical calculation, the step width in this article is
set as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Step width settings.

Reaction time/CA
Step width/(s/step)

0.1
0.05

0.4
0.002

1
0.005

2) Boundary conditions.
Boundary conditions can be divided into
boundary conditions on velocity and boundary
conditions on temperature, and the boundary
conditions on velocity can be divided into sliding, noslip and wall function law boundary conditions.
Generally no-slip boundary conditions are suitable
for viscous fluid. In this chapter, in the simulation
process, SCR import, export, the wall of converters
can be treated as the fixed walls, so choose no-slip
boundary conditions.
In temperature boundary conditions, the boundary
of the SCR can be divided into four parts of the
import, export, reactor front wall and back wall. In
this paper, the temperature boundary is processed as
constant temperature in model calculation. The
determination of SCR initial temperature boundary
conditions can be based on experience, set the
temperature of the inlet (BND_inlet) as 400 C, the
front wall (BND_wall) and the back wall
(BND_wall_SCR) of reactor are taken as a fixed
boundary, set the temperature as 300 K, set the
temperature of inlet (BND_oulet) as 300 K, cylinder
liner wall temperature (BND_Liner) as 470.15 K.

3. The Establishment of Model

3.1. Mathematical Model
In the catalytic converter there are mainly two
parts of the spray zone and the catalytic reaction
zone [2], assume that chemical reactions occur only
in the latter zone. This article selects the porous
media model simulate catalytic reaction zone of
ceramic honeycomb carrier.
The gas flow characteristics accord to
compressible
viscous
fluid
Navier-Stokes
equation [3], N-S equation for short. Multidimensional numerical simulation of gas flow is the
numerical solution to this equation. In the simulation
model, the conservation equations referred to in this
paper are: the mass conservation equation, energy
conservation equation, momentum conservation
equation and component balance equation, in
addition to the above basic conservation equation, as
the model involves the gas flow issue, it also can use
turbulent flow model and state equation of ideal gas.
It is worth mentioning that the whole process is in
steady state, namely it is believed that the flow state
is time-varying, all the calculation use the turbulence
model and SIMPLE algorithm [4].
Equation (1) is the mass conservation equation:

+
( u j ) = 0 ,
t x j

(1)

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Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp. 168-173
where

uj

is

the

velocity

component

in

j direct m s 1 ; is the density, kg m 3 .

Equation
(2)
conservation equation:

is

the

momentum

( ui )
ij
+
ui u j ) =
+
+ gi fi ,
(
t
x j
xi x j

in i direction;

d , g

density respectively; Dd is the diameter of the

droplets; gi is the gravitational acceleration.
Equation (7) is the instantaneous position of
the droplet:

(2)

dX i , d
dt

[ ]

where p is the hydrostatic pressure Pa ; g is the

acceleration of gravity m s ; ij is the viscous
stress tensor effect on practical control volume
2

[ ]

surface of fluid Pa .
Equation (3) is the energy conservation equation:

( h0 )
h

+
( h 0 ) + S h ,
u j h0 ) =
(
t
x j
x j
x j
where

is

the

total

stagnation

(3)

enthalpy,

h = c pT +

ui
, J [kg K ]1 ; S h is the chemical

reaction and element strength of outside radiant heat.

Equation (4) is the component balance equation:

( ml ) +
u j ml ) =
(l l ) + Rl ,
(
t
x j
x j
x j

(4)

where ya is the chemical component quality fraction

of unit volume; Da is the diffusion coefficient of
components, m 2 s 1 ; is the source term of

the chemical reaction rate.

Equation (5) is the state equation of ideal gas:

p=

a RT
ma

= na RT ,

are the droplet and gas

(5)

where

X i ,d

is

the

= ui ,d ,
droplets

(7)

position

vector

in i direction.

3.2. SCR Catalysts Model

The ceramic honeycomb carrier researched in this
paper large number of channel, each channel width is
very small, only about 1 mm. researching directly the
flow of each channel is complex, and even
impossible, so we do need hypothesis for the model
and simplify it.
Ceramic honeycomb carrier is of porous medium,
equivalently tube bundles composed of a lot of
tubules arrayed parallel. All gas phase fluid in
different tubule flow along the carrier from the
beginning to terminal in the same axial velocity. The
fluid only has an axial velocity component; the other
velocity component is zero.
According to Hammel model, calculate the gas
pressure loss, and then according Darcys law, put
forward extended model. This management can make
it more similar to the actual situation, closer to the
test data [5].

= i vi vi vi ,
2
xi
where

is the dynamic viscosity;

(8)

is the

viscosity loss coefficient ( i refer to the X, Y, Z

where

na is the molar mass of components

kg mol ; R is the gas constant J [kg K ] ; T is

the gas temperature [ K ] .
1

In the process of movement, droplets will be

affected by a variety of resistance, the resistance
greatly depends on the spatial distribution and motion
of droplet, the droplets in catalyst reactor are mainly
affected by air drag force and gravity, the momentum
balance equation of droplets is as follows:

dui.d 3 g CD
= ui.g ui.d ( ui.g ui.d ) + 1 g gi ,
dt 4 d Dd
d

where ui.d

(6)

is the droplet velocity component

in i direction; ui. g is the gas flow velocity component

170

direction);

is the inertial loss coefficient; vi is the

local velocity components; is the fluid density.

Due to the higher exhaust temperature,
evaporation of water makes urea solution separate out
urea, the temperature reaches melting point, and urea
generates ammonia and isocyanic acid by pyrolysis
reaction [6].

NH 2CONH 2 NH 3 + HNCO ,

(9)

Because isocyanic acid is steady out of touch with

catalyst, so it can be believed that the isocyanic acid
hydrolysis reaction occurs only with the
catalyst, without catalyst urea occurs only pyrolysis
reaction [7]:

HNCO + H 2O NH 3 + CO2 ,

(10)

Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp. 168-173
According to Eley-Rideal mechanism it can be
concluded that SCR reaction rate is expressed [8]
as follows:

NH 3 + 4 NO + O2 4 N 2 + 6 H 2O ,

(11)

4. Simulation and Optimization Analysis

of the Model
4.1. The Simulation of the Original Machine
Model and Optimization Model
Catalytic converter shell is the support of catalytic
system, and it is the physical boundary conditions of
catalytic converter system, it plays a crucial role on
practical application of catalytic converter system.
The shell should be not only of certain stiffness,
strength, but also meet the demand that thermal
expansion coefficient should be as lower as possible,
and the shell has stronger corrosion resistance, at the
same time, aerodynamics should be fully considered
in the structure design, to minimize the engine
exhaust airflow resistance, and help the catalytic
converter system improve the efficiency of the
catalytic purification [9]. So this paper aims at
optimize the inner structure of the catalytic converter,
mainly optimize the spray angle, the simulation of the
spray angle of nozzle is as shown in Table 2.

Original model spray angle 179

Table 2. Spray angle optimization settings.

Original model
179 (deg)

First time
177

Second time
181

Set the initial conditions and boundary conditions

and simulate, analyze the results of SCR processing
NO with different spray angle.
In order to better analyze the effect of
combustion of SCR, take SCR into simulation in 0.35
seconds. The simulation results are as shown in
Fig. 3, the results SCR processing NO are as shown
in Table 3.
Table 3. NO emissions comparison.

Spray angle
NO/ppm

Original
model
179
0.00047865

First time
177
0.00047458

Second
time
181
0.00047502

4.2. The Analysis of Simulation

In Fig. 4, it can be seen that when the spray angle
is 177 degrees, the SCR processes the most exhaust,
and it is evident in Table 3.
The SCR system gets the minimum NO residual
quantity in spray angle of 177 degrees, so the optimal
value of SCR spray angle is 177 degrees.

Optimal model spray angle 177

Optimal model spray angle 181

Fig. 4. SCR simulation results.

5. Experiments
5.1. Test Equipment
To verify the correctness of the simulation results,
two kinds of SCR systems with different spray angle
are tested on bench. Use the CW260-1800/7500
- T490 dynamometer, and FST2CPUMApen1.
2.1 engine numerical-control system to control the
working condition, AVL CEB-II exhaust analyzer is
used to measure the conventional gaseous emissions
of NOx, HC and CO. Use AVL SPC472 partial flow
dilute particle sampling device to acquire exhaust
particles, weigh it for PM total mass.

Experimental testing method is based on two

kinds of working conditions, one is the steady-state
circulation working condition, and the other one is
transient cyclic working condition. The diameter in
SCR is 26.67 cm, and length 38.1 cm, with total
volume of 22 L, the BASF catalyst is used in postprocessing system. Temperature sensor in catalysts
inlet and outlet is PT200. Metering pump adopts urea
metering pump of Grundfos Company, it can achieve
high-precision injection of liquid into the exhaust
post-processing system. Urea injection electronic
control unit (DCU) communicates with engine ECU
through CAN [10]. The engine model is shown in
Table 4, dynamometer device and emissions test
device is as shown in Fig. 5.

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Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp. 168-173
Table 4. Cummins engine performance parameters.
Item
Type of engine
Total displacement /L
Compression ratio
Rated power /kW(r/min)
Maximum torque /Nm(r/min)

Air intake

Parameter
6 cylinder, inline direct injection, 4 stroke, turbocharged inter-cooled
6.7
17.5
192 (2600)
840 (1500)

air
reservoir

Air compressor

Metering
pump

CAN

DCU

an
k
e
r
a
U
t
Outlet temperature
sensor

tlet temperature
sensor

Liquid level
sensor

exhaust
shaft

Engine

Nozzle

SCR atalytic
converter

Dynamometer
CAN

Fig. 5. Urea SCR post-processing test system schematic diagram.

spray angle is as the following Fig. 6. It can be seen

that in most of the ESC test cycle, the results with
urea injection angle of 177 degrees is better than that
of the original machine with urea injection angle of
179 degrees.

5.2. Experimental Results and Analysis

NOxppm)

In the ESC test cycle, the NO emission volume

fraction comparison after urea SCR emissions
processing in the specific conditions with different

550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

Spray angle 177

Spray angle 179

9
8
operating mode

10

11

12

13

Fig. 6. NOx emission volume fraction in ESC conditions.

In the ETC test cycle, the comparison of NO

emission volume fraction with different urea spray
angle after SCR emissions processing is as Fig. 7. It
shows that in most of the ETC test cycle, the results

172

with urea injection angle of 177 degrees is better than

that of the original machine with urea injection angle
of 179 degrees.

Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 182, Issue 11, November 2014, pp. 168-173
1200
Spray angle 177
Spray angle 179

1000

NOxppm)

800
600
400
200

300

600

900
Times

1200

1500

1800

Fig. 7. NOx emission concentration curve in ETC condition.

Table 5. Emission experimental results.
Urea spray angle
177
179

Test working
condition
ESC
ETC
ESC
ETC

NOx g/(kWh)
3.12
2.31
3.32
2.87

6. Conclusions
In the case of optimizing SCR urea spray angle
structure, simulate its effect on processing NOx
emission. In the simulation diagram and the results, it
can be seen that optimal structure is of great help to
improve the ability of SCR exhaust processing.
Finally with the SCR test bench, the results are
verified. The optimal structure can improve the
performance of the SCR exhaust processing, and it
provides a direction for SCR system design and
performance test research.

Acknowledgements
Project Supported by Foundation Project of
Shanghai Dianji University (Project No. 12XKJC02)
and Foundation Project of Shanghai Municipal
Education Commission (Project No. E3-13SY14).

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