What is SCR

by Jonathan Scott
on 11/30/2017
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Categories: Multiphase, Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT)   •  Products: STAR-CCM+   •  Version Applicable: N/A   •  Article Number:
13496

SCR is an acronym for Selective Catalyst Reduction and is used in vehicle exhaust systems and power stations to convert harmful
NOx emissions (nitrogen oxides).
For vehicles the process generally involves injecting liquid UREA (also known as Adblue) into the exhaust system, UREA is a water
solution and the diagram below shows the physics that we want to capture in a simulation.

Primary break-up
Primary break-up (atomization) is the process of forcing liquid through a small orifice at a high pressure, resulting in a fine spray of
liquid droplets, to simulate this is very difficult and computationally expensive so instead we define a Lagrangian injector inside the
exhaust system.
Lagrangian injectors require the following characteristics; Droplet diameter distribution, Spray angle, Velocity.

Secondary break-up
Secondary break-up is where liquid droplets break up into smaller droplets due to the action of non-uniform surface forces, the
following models are available in STAR-CCM+; KHRT, Reitz-Diwakar, TAB, SSD.

Impingement
When a droplet impinges on a solid wall there can be different behavior modes depending on the droplet and wall properties.
The Bai-Gosman wall impingement model is typically used, to be able to predict all of the possible wall interaction modes you need
to run a Transient analysis with the Fluid Film physical model. To capture the heat transfer between impinging droplets and walls the
Impingement Heat Transfer model can be used, this allows you to capture the gradual cooling or heating of a wall.

Evaporation & Boiling

Evaporation and boiling is the process where liquid droplets and fluid film lose mass to the gas component of the continuous phase,
this can defined in the phase interaction node in STAR-CCM+.

Heat conduction
It is important to include the solid volume in the analysis especially if there is a mixing device. Droplets impinging on the front of the
mixer can cool the wall, and the exhaust gas on the back side of the mixer can heat the wall so the conjugate heat transfer must be

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modeled.

Conversion of NOx
The conversion of NOx requires Ammonia (NH3) and occurs inside the SCR catalyst as gaseous NH3 and NOx diffuse onto the
wash coat and react to form Nitrogen and Water. UREA forms two moles of NH3 in two steps called Thermolysis and Hydrolysis.
 
Thermolysis
Thermolysis is the name for the process where UREA sublimates to form a gas and then decomposes to form Isocyanic acid and
Ammonia, this process can be modeled explicitly with Arrhenius reactions or a lumped approach.

The lumped approach is where the material properties of UREA are modified to include the energy required for decomposition as
well as sublimation, the lumped approach is commonly used because gaseous urea is unstable at higher temperatures and
immediately decomposes.

Hydrolysis
Hydrolysis is gaseous reaction between Water and Isocyanic acid which produces Ammonia, this reaction has a large time scale
and typically occurs in the SCR catalyst.
 
A Typical SCR catalyst has a honeycomb structure with internal walls so the Ammonia produced in the hydrolysis reaction will not be
able to mix within the catalyst and therefore will not influence the Ammonia distribution.

Analysis objective
We expect the NOx to be evenly distributed in our exhaust gas so we therefore want our Ammonia to be evenly distributed at the
entrance of the SCR catalyst, a typical Ammonia uniformity target is between 0.95-0.97.

Film deposits
When fluid film occurs there is the possibility to form white solid deposits, the timescale to form deposits is in the order of
minutes/hours, there are two approaches to estimate the creation of deposits; a risk assessment or modelling the deposit creation
explicitly.
 
Deposit risk assessment
A deposit risk assessment is where the fluid film is post-processed and risk areas identified by using metrics that are known to
create the required conditions for deposit creation.

Model Deposit
To model deposits we require inter-phase reaction models to capture the physics. The possibility of having liquid-liquid phase
reactions is already available in STAR-CCM+ however further developments will be necessary to account for the whole spectrum of
the film reactions.

See also:
Simulating Physics > Modeling Multiphase Flow > Using the Lagrangian Multiphase Model > Working with Primary Atomization
Simulating Physics > Modeling Multiphase Flow > Using the Lagrangian Multiphase Model > Working with Secondary Breakup
Simulating Physics > Modeling Multiphase Flow > Using the Lagrangian Multiphase Model > Lagrangian Phase Models >

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Impingement Heat Transfer Model
Theory > Lagrangian Multiphase Flow > Sprays and Droplets > Wall Impingement
Theory > Eulerian Multiphase Flow > Multiphase Segregated Flow > Heat and Mass Transfer > Evaporation and Condensation

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