Compressed air jets are commonly used for localised cooling of aluminium reduction cell sidewalls when process excursions occur or when sidewall tap outs are imminent. Typically compressed air is applied to cell sidewalls with large variation in the location and direction of air jets. Air flow consumption is generally high as full plant air pressure is used. Compressed air is expensive and has finite capacity hence its use for cooling should be efficient whilst being effective in prolonging cell lives. A range of experiments were conducted to explore the effects of supply air pressure, Reynolds number, jet to sidewall spacing and jet angle on sidewall heat transfer. The experiments were conducted at the Light Metals Research Centre - University of Auckland using a nominal half scale test rig representing cell sidewalls. This paper shows the importance of air pressure, Reynolds number, jet to sidewall distance, and jet angle on sidewall cooling.
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