Impact of Variable Bath Chemistry and Wetting on Gas Bubble Flow in Aluminium Electrolysis Cells

A phenomenological model for the creation and transport of anodic gas bubbles in Hall-H´eroult cells has been developed, following a multiscale approach. The essential features of the modelling framework are reviewed and discussed in the present paper. The model covers the generation of molecular gas species through Faradays law, subsequent bubble nucleation, and the evolution of macroscopic bubbles which are treated by a volume of fluid model. Recently, the modelling framework has been extended to include several complex phenomena such as surface tension and wetting, bath chemistry, and variable flow properties. The modelling framework has currently been applied to a laboratory scale electrolysis cell setup. The results demonstrate that the essential properties are well represented over a large range of experimental conditions by the proposed approach.