Electrically conducting and nonconducting particles and bubblesexperience additional forcing in a liquid which carries electriccurrent. These so called electro-magnetophoretic forces are wellknown in metallurgical applications, like metal purification invacuum-arc remelting, electro-slag processes, impurity removal orconcentration change in special castings. However, the effect ofelectro-magnetophoretic forces has never been considered foraluminium cells where the gas bubbles evolving in the liquidelectrolyte are surrounded by an electric current and significantmagnetic fields. We present models to estimate the effect of electriccurrent flow in the vicinity of the bubbles and the additionalpressure distribution resulting from the magnetic forces in thesurrounding liquid electrolyte. According to the estimates, thisforce becomes important for bubbles exceeding 2 mm in size, andcould be sufficient to overcome the typical drag force associatedwith electrolyte flow thereby opposing motion of the bubble alongthe base of the anode when it is inclined at a slight angle. The effectcould explain certain features of the anode effect onset.Mathematical models and numerical results are presented and afurther implementation in the general MHD code for the aluminiumcell design is discussed.
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