Simulation Method Based on Equivalent Circuit to Investigate the Circuit Characteristics in Aluminum Reduction Cell

In this paper, on the basis of simulation on the electric field of aluminum reduction cell, the simulation signals of cell voltage (CV) and anode currents were obtained through simulating the cell equivalent circuit which was established using Matlab/Simulink software. Several cell conditions, including potline current fluctuation, anode changing, low anode-cathode distance, metal pad contacting with anode surface and local anode effect, were simulated using this model. These obtained simulation data were analyzed comprehensively by time domain, frequency domain, and other statistical methods, such as skewness, and kurtosis. This study further demonstrates that the individual anode current can provide more information on local cell conditions. Different cell conditions produce different characteristics of CV and anode current in time domain or frequency domain, skewness and kurtosis are more sensitive to the change of signals.