3D Simulations On Aluminum Electrolyte Cells

The output of aluminum has an important position in the national economy. It is commonly by electrolyzation to produce aluminum in industry, which is a great consumable process. With the development of technology, it is more and more important to reduce energy consumption and increase aluminum output, and lots of related researches have been done. The main task of this project is to develop a set of special analysis methods and platform for aluminum electrolyte cells, through which to simulate 3D thermal-electric coupled fields of aluminum electrolyte cells, and generalize the influence regulation of cells'parameters by analysis of the calculation results to direct optimized design and optimized control. It has been testified through long-term practical experiences and theoretical calculations that the thermal-electric distribution in a cell has a great impact on current efficiency, energy consumption and cell life. Therefore it is great significant to research the thermal-electric fields distribution. It is difficult to measure the distribution of thermal-electric fields directly during cell's operation process. So we should simulate in an indirect way. The numerical calculation internal has been on since 1980 and has made some benefits. With the development of aluminum production, more and more scarcities of 2D numerical calculation have emerged. Under this condition, this paper is working over the numerical simulation on 3D thermal-electric model of aluminum electrolytic cells. Firstly the 3D physical model and mathematics models have been concluded through the study of the cell structure, operation states and all kinds of models, also the boundary conditions have been defined through knowledge of heat transfer and electricity. Then the method for calculating cells'energy balance is studied. Based on these works, lots of calculations and analysis have been made, such as simulation about different thickness of anode overlay and simulation about some structure parameters and attribute parameters of cells and so on. From these comparisons and analysis, the superiority of 3D model has been concluded and some parameters'influence regulations have been disclosed, which is helpful to direct optimized design and optimized control.