3/18/2020 Diesel Exhaust Gas

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Diesel Exhaust Gas

Hannu Jääskeläinen

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Abstract: Exhaust gas is discharged from the engine through the exhaust system. Exhaust gas properties
which are important for the exhaust system design include its physical properties, exhaust gas temperature—
which depends of the vehicle duty and/or test cycle—and the exhaust gas flow rate.

Exhaust Gas Properties

Exhaust Temperature
Exhaust Gas Flow

1. Exhaust Gas Properties

Engine exhaust gases are discharged into the environment through the exhaust system. The exhaust system
includes several specialized components, ranging from mufflers to emission aftertreatment devices. The
designer of the exhaust system and/or exhaust system components must know a number of exhaust gas
properties.

Compared to the composition of air, the diesel exhaust gas contains increased concentrations of water
vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2)—the main combustion products. The concentrations of both H2O
and CO2 can vary from a few percent, up to about 12% in diesel exhaust. These combustion products
displace oxygen, the concentration of which can vary from a few percent, up to about 17% (compared to
21% in ambient air). The main component of diesel exhaust, just as is the case with ambient air, is nitrogen
(N2). By comparison, the concentrations of diesel exhaust pollutants are very small—for the purpose of
calculating the physical properties of diesel exhaust gas, they can be neglected.

As an approximation, the properties of air can be used for diesel exhaust gas calculations, Table 1 [Perry
1984]. The error associated with neglecting the combustion products is usually no more than about 2%. In a
more rigorous approach, corrections must be taken to account for the actual exhaust gas composition
(increased H2O and CO2, decreased O2). An additional difficulty with this approach is the necessity to

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3/18/2020 Diesel Exhaust Gas

account for the variable exhaust gas composition, which changes with the engine load factor and the air-to-
fuel ratio. Physical properties of mixtures of gases, and methods to calculate them from the properties of
components can be found in the literature [Reid 1987].

Table 1
Physical properties of air (p = 101.13 kPa)
T temperature, K; ρ density, kg/m3; h specific enthalpy, kJ/kg; s specific entropy, kJ/(kg·K); Cp
specific heat at constant pressure, kJ/(kg·K); µ viscosity, 10-4 Pa·s; k thermal conductivity,
W/(m·K)

T ρ h s Cp µ k
260 1.340 260.0 6.727 1.006 0.165 0.0231
280 1.245 280.2 6.802 1.006 0.175 0.0247
300 1.161 300.3 6.871 1.007 0.185 0.0263
350 0.995 350.7 7.026 1.009 0.208 0.0301
400 0.871 401.2 7.161 1.014 0.230 0.0336
450 0.774 452.1 7.282 1.021 0.251 0.0371
500 0.696 503.4 7.389 1.030 0.270 0.0404
600 0.580 607.5 7.579 1.051 0.306 0.0466
800 0.435 822.5 7.888 1.099 0.370 0.0577
1000 0.348 1046.8 8.138 1.141 0.424 0.0681
1200 0.290 1278 8.349 1.175 0.473 0.0783
1400 0.249 1515 8.531 1.207 0.527 0.0927

In addition to the physical properties, the exhaust system designer must know certain other exhaust gas
parameters. These include exhaust gas temperature—which is of special importance for the design of
catalytic aftertreatment devices, as catalyst performance is a function of temperature—and exhaust gas
flow rate. Both parameters are discussed in the following sections.

Another important parameter is the maximum pressure drop through the exhaust system, caused by the
hydraulic resistance of exhaust system components. This parameter—commonly referred to as the “engine
backpressure”—requires that the engine perform additional pumping work, and has other impacts on
engine operation which are discussed in the backpressure paper.

References
Perry, R.H., 1984. “Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook”, McGraw-Hill, New York, 6th edition
Reid, R.C., J.M. Prausnitz and B.E. Poling, 1987. “The Properties of Gases and Liquids”, McGraw-Hill, New York, 4th edition

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