| In recent years, with the development of nuclear power enterprise in our country and thedevelopment of new materials’ research and applications, demand for sodium metal is getting higherand higher, sodium metal has become an important resource of national economic development. Butmaking of sodium metal mainly adopts the way of molten salt electrolysis, the consumption ofenergy is higher, and the technical level is relatively backward in our country. In the world,theleading technology of producing metallic sodium is the United States and France’s industrialelectrolyzers for molten salt electrolysis,but its internal structure，process conditions andrelated design theoretical basis are shrouded in secrecy. The backward technology of producingsodium in China is mainly due to the sodium industry late start in our country, the poorfoundation and the backward basic theory. The backward Sodium process not only restricts thefurther development of the sodium industry in China, but also restricts the further developmentof related industries. Now great progress has been made in sodium industry, but gap is stillvery large from the world’s advanced manufacturing technology.So researching the advancedmanufacturing technology in Sodium electrolytic cells is helpful to reduce energyconsumption,improve the technology of sodium production and promote the sustainabledevelopment of economy.There are many kinds of complex physical fields in sodium electrolytic cell,such as flowfield,electric field,temperature field and so on. Among these physical fields, internal flow field ofelectrolytic cell directly affects whether the electrolysis process could work smoothly. However, theinformation of current study of sodium production in electrolytic tank is limited,the researchexperience of aluminum, magnesium and rare earth electrolytic cell is referenced in this paper, aquarter of40kA sodium electrolytic tank’s flow field is calculated,using a three dimensionalmathematical model built by CFD software,in order to provide a reasonable and scientifictheoretical foundation for optimizing sodium electrolytic tank.The specific work in this paper is mainly composed of the following items:(1) Through the study of gas-liquid-liquid three-phase flow in sodium electrolytic tank shows: the bubbles and liquid sodium have chance to contact when they are floating upward between anodeand cathode, the large vortexes in the process of molten salt electrolyte’s circulation flow willemerge,it’s bad for electrolysis,the cell needs to increase the distance between anode and cathode oradd diaphragm,or make anode holes.(2) Through the comparative study for whether making anode holes or not in sodium cellshows:making anode holes in sodium cell can obviously promote the upward floatation of thebubbles and liquid sodium, the circulation flow of molten salt,can reduce the eddy’s size,do good tothe electrolysis.(3) Through the comparative study of different anode holes’ opening angle shows: anode holeof15degree is best to promote upward floatation of the bubbles and liquid sodium and circulationflow of molten salt,is more advantageous to the electrolysis.(4)Through the study of adding the diaphragm in sodium electrolytic tank’s flow field shows:bubbles and liquid sodium are respectively floating upward, the bubbles are mainly floating upwardbetween outside surface of anode and the diaphragm,the liquid sodium is floating upward betweenoutside surface of cathode and the diaphragm. Electrolyte mainly flows in the area between thediaphragm and the anode, the diaphragm can effectively reduce the formation of the eddy,andpromote the circulation flow of the electrolyte in sodium cell。... |
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