Many existing diesel particulate filter (DPF) models do not sufficiently describe the
actual physiochemical processes that occur during the regeneration process. This is due to the
various assumptions made in the models. To overcome this shortcoming, a detailed twodimensional
DPF regeneration model with a multistep chemical reaction scheme is presented.
The model solves the variable density, multicomponent conservation equations by the pressure
implicit with splitting of operators (PISO) scheme for inlet and outlet channels as well as the
porous soot layer and filter wall. It includes a non-thermal equilibrium (NTE) model for the
energy equation for porous media. In addition, for the first time, experiments on the DPF were
conducted to determine the interstitial heat transfer coefficient inside the DPF porous wall. The
results compare well with an in-house one-dimensional model and subsequently this was used
in the new two-dimensional model. By using this detailed two-dimensional model, some
interesting observations of the DPF regeneration process were revealed. These included flow
reversals and asymmetry in the filter channels
