Static Cooling of a Monolith Converter: Influence of Radiation and Natural Convection

This paper presents a computational study of the static cooling of a catalytic converter with a monolith system. Under conditions without gas flow, the converter cools by convection and radiation to the surroundings. Internally, heat transfer occurs by conduction, natural convection and radiation. The monolith has a high initial temperature and is allowed to cool. The majority of the heat loss occurs around the cylindrical body of the converter. Considering the heat loss through the diffusers, it is found that adding radiation to conduction makes a significant increase in heat loss. The influence of natural convection is negligible. Based on this observation, it can be concluded that a model with radiation and conduction is sufficient to model static cooling on a catalytic converter.