| Popis: |
A crack-resistant carbon anode in high-amperage aluminium cells contributes to improved cell stability and reduced operational costs. Increased metal production by current increase programs is less challenging, and energy savings by deeper anode slots are possible. As an effort to search an improved guidance in the anode manufacturing process and in the raw material selection, new and modified physical quality parameters, based on physical loading tests and finite element analysis, are introduced. Namely, an improvement to the measurement of fracture toughness along with new parameters characterizing the non-linearity in observed stress-strain curves are presented. A cooperation between Itasca Consultants and Hydro has been established to develop a particle-based model using the Discrete Element Method, aiming to study the relationship between the microstructure and the macroscopic mechanical properties and quality parameters of the carbon anode. The model is being developed in the software PFC2D 5.0 (Particle Flow Code) from Itasca. The model is applied to study the origin of the experimentally observed non-linearity in mechanical tests. |
