Fault Detection and Diagnosis of Alumina Feeding System Using Individual Anode Current Measurement

摘要

With the growth in sizes of the Hall-Heroult cells, the detection and diagnosis of faults in the Hall-Heroult process is becoming more difficult, as the information from the cell resistance, which is obtained from the line current and cell voltage, only indicates overall conditions of the cell. In order to achieve improved process efficiency, the measurement of individual anode current has been studied extensively in recent years. Unlike conventionally measured line current and cell voltage, individual anode currents provide information about the localized cell conditions. This paper presents a method to detect faults in the alumina feeding system in the Hall-Heroult cells from individual anode current measurement. It involves the dynamic estimation of the feeding system operating conditions by incorporating a mass balance model, without using physical sensors attached to the feeders. This method is shown to be effective in observing feeder failure, evaluating the seriousness of the fault and identifying failed feeder location.