In this article, lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate the multi-scale flow characteristics of the engine particulate filter at the pore scale and the representative elementary volume (REV) scale, respectively. Four kinds of random wall-pore structures are considered, which are circular random structure, square random structure, isotropic quartet structure generation set (QSGS), and anisotropic QSGS, with difference analysis done. In terms of the REV scale, the influence of different inlet flow velocities and wall permeabilities on the flow in single channel is analyzed. The result indicates that the internal seepage laws of random structures constructed in this article and single channel are in accordance with Darcy’s law. Circular random structure has better permeability than square random structure. Isotropic QSGS has better fluidity than anisotropic one. The flow in single channel is similar to Poiseuille flow. The flow lines in the channel are complicated and a large number of vortices appear at the ends of channel with high inlet flow rate. With the increase of inlet velocity, the static pressure in channel gradually increases along the axial direction as well as the seepage velocity. The temperature field in the channel becomes more uniform as the flow velocity increases, and the higher temperature distribution appears on the wall of the porous media.

To investigate the laminar flow characteristics of porous media in the inner core of engine particulate filters, a two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann–Cellular Automata (LB–CA) probabilistic model is used to simulate the flow characteristics of porous media. The variation of dimensionless permeability of various numerical structures on pore scale with Reynolds number is analyzed, and the heat transfer as well as particle filtration are considered. The results show that the flow law of different structures obeys Darcy law under the condition of low Reynolds number (Re < 1). The dimensionless permeability coefficient of the ordered structure is significantly higher than that of the disordered structure; however. the filtration efficiency of the ordered structure decreases. With the increase of Reynolds number, the heat transfer increases. Furthermore, it is found that the particle size has a great influence on the filtration efficiency.