ABSTRACT
Reactor models and computer simulations can play an important role in meeting the new challenges in the area of optimal catalytic converter design. The most comprehensive treatment of single-passage monolith models can be found in the now classical work of Young and Finlayson. Although catalytic monolith reactors have been used on a large scale in automobile emission control since 1975, several questions concerning optimal design and transient performance of such reactors remain unanswered. Various design options for improving the light-off performance of catalytic converters were investigated by Oh and Cavendish. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act mandate further improvements in catalytic performance by requiring that the life of automobile converters be extended from 50,000 to 100,000 miles and by reducing the levels of allowable pollutant emissions. The strong dependence of Nusselt and Sherwood numbers on axial position was a major result of the comprehensive study by Young and Finlayson.
