Impact of Local Cathode Electrical Cut-Off on Bath–Metal Two-Phase Flow in an Aluminum Reduction Cell

Abstract

Many researchers have investigated the impact factors of the bath–metal flow in an aluminum reduction cell using the simulation method. However, only a few have coupled their models with transient electromagnetic force, which makes the model closer to realistic conditions. In this work, coupling with the transient electromagnetic force, a three dimensional bath–metal two-phase quasi-steady flow model for a full 500 kA cell was built, and the model was validated with the metal velocity and the bath–metal interface deformation measurement in industrial cells. The impacts of local cathode electrical cut-off (LCEC) on the melt flow field were simulated according to six industrial cases. We found that the LCEC has little impact on the general pattern of the melt flow field, but the local metal velocity and the interface deformation would be changed to a certain extent. LCEC at positions A2A3 and A10A11 (as introduced in the full text) could suppress the interface hump at the central downstream area of the cell, with the anode cathode distance (ACD) increased by 3% and 7.5%, respectively. LCEC at positions A18A19 and A22A23 would deteriorate the interface hump condition, with the ACD decreased by 4% and 3%, respectively. The solution given in this paper is to cut the cathode flexes partially at abnormal positions to stabilize the melt flow field.