CFD Modelling of Electrolyte Flow in Aluminium Reduction Cells

摘要

A CFD model has been developed to study the effect of design parameters (e.g. inter-anode gap, the presence of slot) on bath flow of an aluminium reduction cell, where a full scale air-water model of part of a cell has been used as a test bed.Two inter-anode gaps (20 mm, 40 mm) in combination with two anode configurations (no slot and a 15 mm wide longitudinal slot) have been considered. Further to the model validation using PIV measurement taken under similar conditions, the effect of inter-anode gap and the presence of a slot on bath flow have been investigated quantitatively in terms of the amount of gas in the anode-cathode distance (ACD) under the anode, and net flow in the ACD and in the inter-anode gaps and slot.