Water blow out phenomena inside a heavy truck silencer

Abstract: NOx sensors have become salient components in the development of efficient exhaust after treatment system for heavy duty vehicles in the past few years. When the accumulated water inside the silencer splashes on to the NOx sensor, it can cause permanent cracks in the sensor. To protect the sensor from this mode of failure, a dew point strategy is developed at Scania. This is important to predict when it is safe to switch on the NOx sensor without causing any harm to it. But the strategy currently includes only the phase transfer phenomena and neglects the effect of the water blow out phenomena inside the silencer. To investigate the effect of water blow out, an experimental test method is designed and the experiments are conducted at different locations in the silencer. The results from the experiments shows that the effect of water blow out is certainly an important factor to develop a better dew point strategy model. For a selected location, the quantity of water remaining after blow out and the time taken for the blow out phase are collected as data from the experiments. A mathematical model for the water blow out phenomena is developed in MATLAB. The model estimates the maximum amount of water which could be present in all the subvolumes of the silencer considering the effect of water blow out. The model is verified with the experimental data for a Scania CAS1 silencer. Calibration guidelines for the developed blow out model are also documented in this report.