Effect of Air Velocity on Temperature Field of Rare Earth Electrolytic Cell

Currently, most rare earth molten salt electrolysis uses a 3 kA open-top tank-type structure. The change of temperature field in the actual production process of this cell structure is greatly affected by the ambient wind speed. In this paper, the air flow velocity above the rare earth electrolytic cell is taken as a variable, the heat transfer coefficient between the molten salt liquid level and the environment under different air velocities is studied by numerical simulation. It is found that when the velocity reaches 0.935 m/s (equivalent to grade 1 wind speed), the convection mode changes from natural convection to mixed convection. The physical model and temperature field mathematical model of the electrolytic cell are established by Comsol software, and studied the influence of the velocity on the temperature field of the electrolysis cell by varying the velocity. It is found that the air velocity higher than 2 m/s or lower than 1.5 m/s is not conducive to the electrolysis. When the air velocity is 1.5 m/s~2 m/s, the temperature of the electrolytic cell is between 1050 ℃ and 1080 ℃, which is conducive to the electrolysis; The influence of air velocity of 0~5 m/s on the temperature field is quantitatively analyzed. It is found that with the increase of air velocity of 0.5 m/s, the overall temperature of electrolytic cell decreases by about 4 ℃. This result provides theoretical support for the speed control of gas collection device.