Abstract: Simulations on the bath flow fields around a prebaked carbon anode with gas discharging grooves at the bottom which could be applied on aluminum reduction cell was conducted. The results reveal that with the help of the grooves, anode gas discharging is facilitated, residence time of bubbles in the interpolar gap( or ACD) and the bubbles coverage of the anode bottom can be reduced, which greatly contributes to the decrease of the voltage drop in ACD and anode effects, so the energy consumption of the aluminum production can be lowered. On the other hand electrolyte dragged by gas bubbles goes into the grooves, then to the side channel of the cell, passageway for the bath circulation is widened, a relatively smooth bath circulation around the anode will be formed, which enhances the heat and mass transmission, therefore a good electrolysis operation can be obtained. Compared the grooves which extend through the whole length of the anode bottom with those do not, the former are more propitious to the stability of the bath flow, meanwhile as the grooves facilitate the gas venting, the so called “second reaction”, i.e. the aluminum reduced diffuse into the bath and react with the anode gas again, could be restrained to some extent, which would be beneficial to the improvement of the current efficiency. 

Key words: prebaked carbon anodes; gas discharging grooves; anode gas; bath flow fields