CFD simulation of effect of anode configuration on gas–liquid flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell

Numerical simulations of gas–liquid two-phase flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell were conducted to investigate the effects of anode configurations on the bath flow, gas volume fraction and alumina content distributions. An Euler–Euler two-fluid model was employed coupled with a species transport equation for alumina content. Three different anode configurations such as anode without a slot, anode with a longitudinal slot and anode with a transversal slot were studied in the simulation. The simulation results clearly show that the slots can reduce the bath velocity and promote the releasing of the anode gas, but can not contribute to the uniformity of the alumina content. Comparisons of the effects between the longitudinal and transversal slots indicate that the longitudinal slot is better in terms of gas–liquid flow but is disadvantageous for alumina mixing and transport process due to a decrease of anode gas under the anode bottom surface. It is demonstrated from the simulations that the mixing and transfer characteristics of alumina are controlled to great extent by the anode gas forces while the electromagnetic forces(EMFs) play the second role.

Transient simulation of regression rate on thrust regulation process in hybrid rocket motor

The main goal of this paper is to study the characteristics of regression rate of solid grain during thrust regulation process. For this purpose, an unsteady numerical model of regression rate is established. Gas–solid coupling is considered between the solid grain surface and combustion gas.Dynamic mesh is used to simulate the regression process of the solid fuel surface. Based on this model, numerical simulations on a H2O2/HTPB（hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene） hybrid motor have been performed in the flow control process. The simulation results show that under the step change of the oxidizer mass flow rate condition, the regression rate cannot reach a stable value instantly because the flow field requires a short time period to adjust. The regression rate increases with the linear gain of oxidizer mass flow rate, and has a higher slope than the relative inlet function of oxidizer flow rate. A shorter regulation time can cause a higher regression rate during regulation process. The results also show that transient calculation can better simulate the instantaneous regression rate in the operation process.