Numerical Prediction on the Characteristics of Spray-Induced Mixing and Thermal Decomposition of Urea Solution in SCR System

The spray-induced mixing characteristics and thermal decomposition of aqueous urea solution into ammonia have been studied to design optimum sizes and geometries of the mixing chamber in SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system. The cold flow tests about the urea-injection nozzle were performed to clarify the parameters of spray mixing characteristics such as mean diameter and velocity of drops and spray width determined from the interactions between incoming air and injected drops. Discrete particle model in Fluent code was adopted to simulate spray-induced mixing process and the experimental results on the spray characteristics were used as input data of numerical calculations. The simulation results on the spray-induced mixing were verified by comparing the spray width extracted from the digital images with the simulated particle tracks of injected drops. The single kinetic model was adopted to predict thermal decomposition of urea solution into ammonia and solved simultaneously along with the verified spray model. The hot air generator was designed to match the flow rate and temperature of the exhaust gas of the real engines. The measured ammonia productions in the hot air generator were compared with the numerical predictions and the comparison results showed good agreements. Finally, we concluded that the design capabilities for sizing optimum mixing chamber were established.