Numerical Simulation Of Flow Field-Electric Field Coupling In Rare Earth Electrolytic Cell

The requirement quantity of rare earth metal is increasing quickly as the level of productiontechnique is getting higher. For the purpose of increasing the efficiency of electrolysis is the mainpoint in our study. It is meaningful for the optimization of rare earth electrolytic cell to study thedistribution of various physical fields. The reaction rate of upper anode is quicker than the bottompart in the rare earth electrolytic cell in the production process. For the purpose of making thedistribution of electric field uniformity and the electrolytic efficiency stable, the new conception wasput forward that the flow and electric field exist simultaneously by considering the anode gas exists.The flow and electric field simulation was completed with ANSYS software by considering theaffectofanodegas totheelectricfield.The rare earth electrolytic cell structure model was established by modeling software, theanode area mesh structure was treated accurately. Comparing with the previous mesh structure, thetotal mesh number of anode area by considering the anode gas was5times larger than the ones inpreviousworkwhichmade thecalculation resultsmoreaccurate.The mechanism of rare earth electrolytic cell coupling was introduced then, the coupling wayas the bothway coupling, the key point of data transmission was to connect anode gas volumefraction with conductivity,and the small test platform was established to verify whether the anodesurface gas affected the electric field. The result showed that the electric field was affected by anodegas,electricfield distribution wasnotsymmetrical.Rare earth electrolytic electric field coupling flow field numerical simulation was completed bythe work of flow field model refining,including mesh processing, turbulence model selection, newgas rate applications, ameliorative surface chemical reaction and porous media model. And thenbased on the electric field model, the rare earth electrolytic cell flow and electric field couplingnumerical simulation was completed. The results showed that electric field distribution was notsymmetrical, and the anode angle was adjusted to improve the efficiency of electrolysis for thepurpose of getting the right anode angle by comparing the result data, and reducing the loss of anode material. The results can provide data support to the development of new type rare earth electrolyticcell.