Xiaolong Wang

This study numerically investigates the effect of catalytic activity on the cold-start ignition and combustion characteristics of a propane-fueled U-bend catalytic micro-reactor. A reactive-wall approach is employed to model the catalyst coating, wherein catalytic activity is represented by the surface area factor. The results show that surface area factors between 0.425 and 3.4 exert a significant impact on ignition and combustion behavior, reducing the ignition temperature from 682 K to 521 K and decreasing the ignition delay time from 147 s to 52 s while increasing the HTR (heterogeneous reaction) contribution from 26.1% to 65.5%. Beyond a surface area factor of 3.4, performance improvements become marginal. The temporal analysis reveals that the catalytic reaction pathway dominates during the preheating stage, whereas the gas-phase reaction pathway gains prominence following ignition, eventually reaching a stable balance between the two pathways after approximately 10 s. These findings identify low catalytic activity as a sensitive operating regime and underscore the critical role of catalytic activity in optimizing ignition performance of catalytic micro-reactors.

The global effort to mitigate hazardous particulate matter (PM) emissions from diesel engines relies significantly on advances in separations technologies. The diesel particulate filter (DPF) is a critical component designed to trap soot and ash from diesel engine exhaust, ensuring cleaner emissions and compliance with environmental regulations. In the current paper, a gas-particle two-phase flow model in the microchannels of a DPF is developed. A novel statistical approach based on probability sampling is proposed aimed at generating a particle ensemble that adheres to the real-world soot particle size distribution (PSD). The Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is employed to model the soot-laden gas flow, where the gas phase flow field is solved in the Eulerian framework, while the particle phase motion is tracked in the Lagrangian framework. The results demonstrate that the through-wall velocity plays a predominant role in the overall deposition behavior of the mixed-sized particle group. Increasing upstream velocity shifts initial particle deposition positions further from the channel inlet and enhances mass accumulation at the channel’s terminal section. Reduced filtration wall permeability promotes the uniformity of soot deposition along the channel. A permeability of 5 × 10⁻¹³ m² is identified as the critical threshold, below which the soot deposition distribution approaches near-complete uniformity.

Syngas can be used as feedstock for efficient energy conversion in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In the current paper, the conversion efficiency of methane to synthesis gas (H₂ and CO) within a two-layer porous media reactor is investigated by a one-dimensional two-temperature model. A detailed chemical reaction mechanism GRI-Mech 1.2 is used to describe the chemical processes. Attention is focused on CO₂ content in the methane/air mixture, heat loss to the surroundings, and solid thermal conductivity on temperature distribution and conversion efficiency. Numerical results show that addition of CO₂ to the methane/air mixture improves the conversion efficiency. For a molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄ = 1, the conversion efficiency reaches 44.8%. An increase in heat loss to the surroundings leads to a decrease in conversion efficiency. A greater solid thermal conductivity can improve the conversion efficiency.

A numerical investigation on the soot laden flow of gas in a partial diesel particulate filter (PDPF) is presented based on solving the momentum equations for a continuous phase in the Euler frame and the motion equations for the dispersed phase in the Lagrangian frame. The interaction between the gas phase and the particles is considered as a one-way coupling for dilute particle concentration, while the interaction between particles and porous wall is implemented through user-definedsubroutines. To accurately track motion of nanoscale particles, the Brownian excitation and drag force as well as partial slip are taken into account in the particulate motion equation. Two methods are used to verify the gas flow model and reasonable agreements for both comparisons are observed. The effects of inlet velocity, wall permeability and particle size on the filtration efficiency and deposition distribution of the particles along with wall surface of inlet channel are quantitatively studied. The results show that (i) wall permeability plays the primary role in determining the filtration efficiency of PDPF, (ii) both upstream velocity and particle size have an effect on the initial deposition position of particles and (iii) filtration efficiency of PDPF is not markedly proportional to gas flow into inlet channels at a low wall permeability.