3D Nonlinear Viscoelastic-Viscoplastic Model for Ramming Paste Used in a Hall-Héroult Cell
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 141, Issue 5
Abstract
Ramming paste is a carbonaceous porous material used in Hall-Héroult cells. It is baked in place under varying loads. To model the cell mechanical behavior during its lifespan, it was necessary to develop a constitutive law that included ramming paste creep behavior. A three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear viscoelastic-viscoplastic constitutive law was devised and developed to model the primary and secondary creep stages of baked paste. The model consisted of two parts (i.e., viscoelastic and viscoplastic). Each creep mechanism was based on the existence of a dissipative potential for the hydrostatic and deviatoric parts. Analytical solutions were presented for linear creep behavior. For the nonlinear case, the deviatoric part of the viscoelastic behavior could be obtained numerically, and all other parts analytically. Finally, model parameters were identified for paste baked and tested at different temperatures. A pattern search algorithm was used to optimize the model parameters. A comparison of the results gained from the model with experimental results showed that the devised model well represented the nonlinear viscoelastic-viscoplastic behavior of the paste baked at 250°C and tested at room temperature. In addition, the model was able to predict the qualitative creep behavior of the paste baked at 350, 560, and 1,000°C and tested at 300, 300, and 25°C, respectively.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Alcoa Inc. Part of the research presented in this paper was financed by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Nature et Technologies by the intermediary of the Aluminium Research Centre–REGAL. In addition, the authors express their gratitude to Dr. Hicham Chaouki for his helpful comments, professors Daniel Marceau and Luca Soreli for their comments, and Dr. Donald Picard and Mr. Hugues Ferland for their technical support in the laboratory.
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 141 • Issue 5 • May 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 30, 2014
Accepted: Sep 11, 2014
Published online: Oct 6, 2014
Published in print: May 1, 2015
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