Numerical investigation of the spray behavior and flow characteristics of urea-water solution injected into diesel exhaust pipe

A urea-SCR system suffers from some issues associated with the ammonia slip phenomenon, which mainly occurs because of the shortage of evaporation and thermolysis time, and this makes it difficult to achieve an uniform distribution of injected urea. A numerical study was therefore performed by changing such various parameters as installed injector angle and application and angle of mixer to enhance evaporation and the mixing of urea water solution with exhaust gases. As a result, various parameters were found to affect the evaporation and mixing characteristics between exhaust gas and urea water solution, and their optimization is required. Finally, useful guidelines were suggested to achieve the optimum design of a urea-SCR injection system for improving the DeNO _x performance and reducing ammonia slip.