Numerical simulation of the gas-liquid-liquid flow in aluminium reduction cells

Flow field in aluminum reduction cells is very important for the heat transfer, the mass transfer and the moment transfer. The gas-liquid-liquid flow in aluminum reduction cells was studied numerically by ANSYS and CFX. The study indicates that the anode bubbles present as a shallow layer. The bath-metal interface deformation of gas liquid-liquid three-phase flow model is larger than that of liquid-liquid two-phase flow model. The velocity magnitude and circulation flow direction of bath flow in the channels are affected by the anode bubbles. The anode bubbles play a major role in bath flow of the channels´ domain only. The Lorentz force plays a major role in bath flow of other domain. The conclusion indicates that the gas-liquid-liquid three-phase model is necessary for the numerical simulation of flow field in aluminum reduction cells and the three-phase model provides basis for further optimization.