Encyclopedie de la recherche sur l'aluminium au Quebec - Edition 2014 | Page 35

PRODUCTION Method
Discrete ElementDE L’ALUMINIUM // ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION
Modelling of Anode Paste

33

MODÉLISATION DE LA PÂTE D'ANODE PAR LA MÉTHODE DES ÉLÉMENTS DISCRETS

Modélisation de la pâte d'anode par
DISCRETE ELEMENT METHOD
la Méthode des éléments discrets MODELLING OF ANODE PASTE
Behzad Majidi1,2, Houshang Alamdari1, Mario Fafard12, Donald Ziegler3
2

1 Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering,Université Laval
NSERC/Alcoa Industrial Research Chair MACE3 and Aluminium Research Centre – REGAL, Université Laval, Québec
Alcoa Primary Metals, Alcoa Technical Center, 100 Technical Drive, Alcoa Center, PA, 15069-0001, USA

3

Problematic

Objectives

The density and homogeneity of carbon anodes have direct
effect on the efficiency of Hall-Héroult process. Tailoring the
process parameters according the variations in properties of
raw materials requires a high level of knowledge on the
mechanisms of flow and compaction of anode paste.

Raw Materials
Properties

Process
Parameters

3D Discrete Element Method
Simulation

Coke/pitch mixture
rheology

Final
Anode Quality

Parameters affecting
mixture density and
homogeneity

An algorithm to
adjust processing
parameters

Cost of aluminum smelting process

Burger’s model is composed of four elements which can
be considered as a Maxwell model in series with a Kelvin model.
Differential constitutive equation of Burger’s model is obtained as:

Theory
Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used to
model the anode paste.
Basic elements of a DEM model are spheres
and properties of the material is modeled by
defining the appropriate contact model between
the spheres.
The equations of motion are integrated using a
finite difference procedure involving a time step
∆t.