Continuum scale modeling of exhaust gas transport in gasoline particulate filters: An applicability regime approach

Emission control devices such as gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) are being adopted by vehicle manufacturers to mitigate particulate emissions in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. In this paper, we present a multi-scale modeling framework to resolve mass, energy, and momentum transport equations of the exhaust gases in a GPF. Applicability conditions under which the macroscale transport equations accurately capture pore-scale dynamics are derived. Moreover, a novel methodology is proposed to quantify the relative importance of different transport mechanisms in the soot layer by means of mass and heat transfer Peclet (Pe) and Damkohler (Da) numbers. Finally, we discuss how the newly developed modeling tools assess the veracity of macroscopic models against their pore-scale counterparts in a case study of GPF operation prior to, during, and after the completion of a regeneration event using experimental data.