China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The physical field of rare earth electrolyzer is affected by different distribution positions of conductive plates. In order to explore the optimal location of the conductive plate distribution in the rare earth electrolytic cell, in this simulation, an arithmetic series distribution gradient is introduced for the distribution of the conductive plate, the simulation values of physical field in the groove under different distribution gradients are compared, then the optimal distribution model of conductive plates in rare earth electrolytic cell is obtained. During the simulation, it is observed that the sharp angle at the bottom of the cathode has a great influence on the experimental results, on the basis of other conditions remaining unchanged, the bottom of the cathode is optimized from a cylinder to a hemispherical shape, and the rationality of the new electrolytic cell structure is verified by comparing with the unoptimized structure. The simulation results show that as the conductive plate shifts from the side to the middle, the temperature and anode potential in the tank remain unchanged, the potential difference between the cover plate and the anode gradually decreases, and the current density in the tank slowly increases. When the bottom of the cathode molybdenum rod is changed from a cylindrical structure to a spherical structure, the potential distribution in the tank is more uniform, and the current density is also increased compared with the previous structure. The optimized structure can improve the local overheating problem and increase the electrolytic efficiency.