Application of a Genetic Algorithm to the Numerical Analysis of Thermo-Fluid Flow and Catalytic Reaction in an Exhaust Gas Three-Way Catalyzer

摘要

As to three-way catalyzers (TWC) for gasoline engine exhaust gas, further improvement in the purification performance of exhaust gas is required. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the purification characteristics in detail and improve the catalyzer geometry, etc. In this study, the authors incorporated a catalytic reaction model, whose reaction and absorption rate constants were optimized by means of a genetic algorithm (GA), into the authors' GTT code to analyze the thermo-fluid flow with chemical reaction in a TWC. The conversion efficiencies of the exhaust gas components CO, HC and NO in the TWC were simulated reasonably well by three-dimensional calculation using the GTT code with the optimized rate constants.