Effect of electrode shape on the current distribution in submerged arc furnaces for silicon production - A modelling approach

Abstract

This work presents computations of electrical current distribution inside an industrial submerged arc furnace for silicon production. A 3D model has been developed in ANSYS Fluent using an electrical potential solver. The electrode, arc, crater, crater wall, and side arcs that connect the electrode and crater wall are considered for each phase. The shape of the electrodes is considered as a truncated right cone. We assume that several concentrated side-arcs are distributed around the circumference of the electrode near the electrode tip. The number of side arcs varies, depending on the slope of the slant height,. Four simulation conditions are considered by changing the conductivity of the charge and by adding or removing main arcs on seven different configurations of side arcs. The phase voltages in the electrode and current distributions in crater wall are presented. The total current in the crater wall is reduced by 20 to 35% when the charge conductivity is changed by two orders of magnitude, and the phase voltage is very high when the main arc is not taken into consideration. Qualitative analysis shows that our modelling approach gives reasonable results.