Numerical Simulation on the Transient Temperature Field of Anode Rodding in Aluminium Reduction Cells

Abstract

The temperature field of the anode rodding process is the root of most of problems related to the anode. A 3D transient thermal finite element model was developed, based on ANSYS in this paper. The temperature field of the rodding process was investigated using this model. The results were presented and analyzed in detail, including the transient temperature fields of different components in the anode, the characteristics of the cast iron solidification, and the cooling rate distribution. The conclusions were as follows. When the stub hole was filled up at 10 s, 30% by volume of cast iron was below the liquidus temperature. At 70 s, the cast iron solidified completely. The cast iron close to the stub solidified prior to that close to the carbon. The solidification mode was intermediate-freezing. The solidifying sequence was vertically from bottom to top, indicating that shrinkage cavities were less likely to occur. The temperature of the stub was higher than the carbon, and portion at high temperature was concentrated around the stub hole. The cooling rate during solidification was 4.3 °C s−1 to 43.7 °C s−1, and the gradient on the radial direction was relatively obvious.

Keywords

• aluminium reduction cell
• numerical simulation
• anode rodding
• transient thermal analysis
• cast iron solidification