Numerical study on the urea thawing and heat transfer characteristics with electric heating module for light commercial vehicle

The Urea-SCR, one of the exhaust gas after-treatment devices, is regarded as the most device for NOx regulation. However, a challenging problems is to ensure that the urea-water solution used as a reducing agent is available for operating the system in a cold environment. The urea thawing process, in which the solid turns to liquid, is associated with the phase change and physical property change phenomena. In this study, therefore, the commercial software ANSYS Fluent was utilized to conduct a numerical analysis in order to investigate the urea thawing process, including a complex solid-liquid phase change with the electric heating module. After validating the numerical methods adopted in this work, the thermal characteristics, such as variation of the liquid fraction and temperature distribution with time, were investigated as potential basic data for optimum design. ? 2019 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers.