About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Aluminum Reduction Technology
|
| Presentation Title |
Numerical Investigation of the Thermal, Electrical and Mechanical Behaviour of an Aluminum Reduction Cell During Start-Up |
| Author(s) |
Simon-Olivier Tremblay, Daniel Marceau, Antoine Godefroy, Dominic Dubé, Philippe St-Arnaud |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Simon-Olivier Tremblay |
| Abstract Scope |
The startup of an aluminum reduction cell involves several critical phases, including preheating, bath-up and early life, which strongly influence its long-term performance and service life. A reliable representation of these phases is required to better understand the thermo-electro-mechanical behaviour of the cell and support optimization efforts. In this work, electrical, thermal and displacement measurements have been collected during the startup of an industrial reduction cell and used to calibrate a transient thermo-electro-mechanical model developed in ANSYS™. The model includes accurate temperature/pressure dependant lying bed electrical resistivity and the baking-dependent mechanical properties of the ramming paste, both obtained through dedicated experimental characterization program. The calibrated model provides a realistic representation of the cell response throughout startup and enables a detailed investigation of temperature evolution, current distribution and stress distribution in the lining materials. The results improve the understanding of startup mechanisms to support further optimization of the startup practices. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Light Metals |
| Keywords |
Aluminum, Modeling and Simulation, Process Technology |