Honeycomb structure

A honeycomb structure comprising:

• a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure body having porous partition walls disposed so as to surround a plurality of cells serving as fluid through channels extending from a first end face to a second end face, and having a circumferential wall disposed so as to encompass the partition walls, wherein
• each cell of the plurality of cells is a fluid through channel formed by a through hole that is entirely open from the first end face to the second end face,
• the partition walls and the circumferential wall constituting the honeycomb structure body are an integrally formed product made of the same material containing cordierite as a main component,
• a porosity of the partition walls is 45 to 70%,
• when a material strength of the material constituting the partition walls is set to F (MPa), and the material strength F is 4 to 10 (MPa),
• a thermal conductivity of the material constituting the partition walls is set to k (W/mk),
• a bulk density of the honeycomb structure body is set to ρ (g/cc),
• a Young's modulus of the material constituting the partition walls is set to E (GPa), and the Young's modulus E is 10 to 30 (GPa),
• a thermal expansion coefficient of the material constituting the partition walls is set to a (10−6/° C.), and
• in a section orthogonal to the extending direction of the cells of the honeycomb structure body, a difference in thickness of the circumferential wall obtained by subtracting the minimum thickness T2 (mm) of the circumferential wall from the maximum thickness T1 (mm) of the circumferential wall is set to ΔT (mm),
• P calculated by the following equation (1) is 3.0 to 30,
• P=F×k×ρ/(E×α×ΔT) Equation (1):
• wherein, in the equation (1), when the difference in thickness of the circumferential wall represented by ΔT is less than 0.06 mm, 0.06 shall be substituted as the value of ΔT, and
• wherein a catalyst for exhaust gas purification is loaded on at least one of a surface of the partition walls and pores of the partition walls.