Artigo Completo:

Metal diesel filters for heavy and medium duty were applied in automotive market in the last decades. However, new energetic efficiency trends and final user demands force new developments to reduce product weight, improve serviceability and decrease trash disposal. Polymer application brings advantages because it uses materials with lower density and allows implementation of complex product designs with fewer components. However, its application requires an intensive effort, as temperature and chemical attack affects the polymer properties in more intensive way than metal. In this way, aiming the optimum balance between performance and cost, a concept of polymeric diesel filter has been created. First strategical point was material characterization. Several aging tests were implemented considering environment conditions to understand the material properties impact. Second strategical point is related to fast and robust numerical simulation. New methodology was implemented to develop a less complex and fast numerical simulation. This initiative allows the designer to be more audacious in the product concepts and get a fast feed-back about directions to be followed. This paper presents the methodology to develop a polymeric diesel filter and results in comparison to metal filter.