Finite element modeling for structural analysis of shells of reduction cells

A desirable prerequisite of finite element models of the steel shells of reduction cells is the ease by which design changes can be evaluated. In this paper, three levels of F.E. models are built for a certain shell design; viz. two types of simplified models and a detailed F.E. model. Compared to the detailed model, simplified models allow quick and reasonably accurate assessment to be made of the effects of stiffener sizes and distribution on overall cathode stresses and deformations. The simplified model has been successfully used to conduct design improvement studies which resulted in weight reduction by about 7.7% while improving shell structural performance significantly. This result is confirmed by conducting non-linear F.E. analysis.