Abstract: The method of numerical simulation was applied to investigate gas preheating and start-up process in a drained aluminum reduction cell. The transient temperature and velocity fields of a 156 kA drained aluminum reduction cell were numerically calculated. The results show that the method of gas preheating and bake-out can basically meet the technical requirements of the start-up process for the drained cell. If the same distributing scheme of gas nozzle as that in the general cells is used, there are problems of great temperature gradients and low temperature zone at the top of cathode near the side of nozzles. In order to  promote the effect of gas preheating and baking the drained cell, the jetting angle of end nozzle is adjusted and the temperature distribution in the drained cell is obviously improved. By means of simulating the temperature field in the case that jetting angle varies from 0˚ to 30˚, it is concluded that better temperature distribution can be obtained if the jetting angle of end nozzle is approximately 15˚.

Key words: drained cell; aluminum reduction cell; gas preheating; start-up; temperature field; numerical simulation