Permeabilidade a quente de refratários para revestimento de cubas eletrolíticas (Hot permeability of refractories for aluminum electrolytic cells lining at high temperatures)

In the aluminium primary industry, one of the main causes for electrolytic cells lining deterioration is the chemical attack by high NaF content cryolitic bath, that penetrates and reacts with the refractory, shortening the cell’s service life and resulting great economic losses. Based on the most recent studies on characterization of alumino-silicate refractories for aluminum cell linings, a good correlation has been found between its chemical attack by molten fluorides and the permeability, which is calculated by Forchheimer’s equation in order to obtain the Darcian constant k 1 (viscous effects) and non-Darcian constant k 2 (inertial effects). Nevertheless, in the majority of the situations permeability parameters are obtained at room temperature. This work aims to study how the increasing temperature affects permeability from room temperature up to �00 oC in these materials, in order to reproduce the operational conditions. It’s also the objective to investigate the permeability of lining refractories for molten aluminum transport crucibles and evaluate the technological viability of such measurement technique for these materials.