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The effect of soot on the catalytic properties of a diesel particulate filter coated with a catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with ammonia (SDPF) was studied by means of model-gas experiments. After loading of the SDPF with model soot from 0 to 10 g l-1, the NH3 storage as well as the catalytic DeNOx behavior of the standard SCR reaction was investigated. The model soot present in the filter was shown to have an NH3 storage capacity. The soot deposit inside the SDPF filter wall lead to a decreased NO conversion in SCR experiments of up to 20 %. The NH3 breakthrough was found to be shifted towards earlier time-on-stream during NH3 adsorption on soot loaded SDPF samples. Both effects could be attributed to a diffusive mass transport limitation of the gas species through the soot to reach at the chemically active sites inside SDPF filter wall. The self-diffusion coefficient of NH3 probe molecules within a soot layer could be measured using Pulsed Field Gradient-NMR technique. The unit collector model is capable of describing the backpressure upon soot loading with a depth filtered (inside filter wall) soot amount of 1 g l-1 and 0.36 g l-1, respectively, for both SDPF types under investigation. Based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) investigation a 1-D microscopic soot filter wall-model was set up. The model implies soot as diffusion barrier for mass transport. It was calibrated based on experimental observations and allows to conclude on the distribution of the soot within the filter wall. Thus, a high soot-coverage of the porous filter wall close to the inlet channel, a slightly covered middle part and a soot free zone close to the outlet explains the observed reduction in NO conversion as well as the NH3 breakthrough at earlier time-on-stream during NH3 adsorption experiments for SDPF samples loaded with soot. A modelled homogeneous soot distribution (0.6 µm soot layer on top of washcoat) within the whole SDPF was shown to result in NO conversion drop up to 45 %.

This study addresses the influence of elevated pressures, fuel type, fuel flow rate and co-flow air on the flame structure and flickering behaviour of laminar oscillating diffusion flames. Photomultipliers, high speed photography and schlieren, accompanied with digital image processing techniques have been used to study the flame dynamics. Furthermore, the effects of pressure on the flame geometry and two-dimensional soot temperature distribution in a laminar stable diffusion flame have been investigated, utilising narrow band photography and two-colour pyrometry technique in the near infra-red region. This study provides a broad dataset on the diffusion (sooty) flame properties under pressures from atmospheric to 16 bar for three gaseous hydrocarbon fuels (methane, ethylene and propane) in a co-flow burner facility.It has been observed that the flame properties are very sensitive to the fuel type and flow rate at elevated pressures. The cross-sectional area of the stable flame shows an average inverse dependence on pressure to the power of n, where n was found to be 0.8±0.2 for ethylene flame, 0.5±0.1 for methane flame and 0.6±0.1 for propane flame. The height of a flame increases firstly with pressure and then decreases with further increase of pressure. It is observed that the region of stable combustion was markedly reduced as pressure was increased. An ethylene flame flickers with at least three dominant modes, each with corresponding harmonics at elevated pressures. In contrast, methane flames flicker with one dominant frequency and as many as six harmonic modes at elevated pressures. The increase in fuel flow rate was observed to increase the magnitude of oscillation. The flickering frequency, however, remains almost constant at each pressure. The dominant flickering frequency of a methane diffusion flame shows a power-law dependence on chamber pressure.It has been observed that the flame dynamics and stability are also strongly affected by the co-flow air velocity. When the co-flow velocity reached a certain value, the buoyancy driven flame oscillation was completely suppressed. The schlieren imaging has revealed that the co-flow of air is able to push the initiation point of outer toroidal vortices beyond the visible flame to create a very stable flame. The oscillation frequency was observed to increase linearly with the air co-flow rate. The soot temperature results obtained by applying the two-colour method in the near infra-red region shows that in diffusion flames the overall temperatures decrease with increasing pressure. It is shown that the rate of temperature drop is greater for a pressure increase at lower pressures in comparison with higher pressures.