Abstract: By analyzing the temperature distribution of traditional briquetting in a magnesium reduction retort, it is necessary to improve the briquetting's shape to shorten the reduction cycle of the magnesium silicon thermal reduction method. The heat transfer process of a new-type briquetting for magnesium reduction was simulated by FLUENT software, with focus on the influence of the briquetting'height, edge height, inner diameter, bottom diameter, notch diameter and notch number on the heat transfer process and the magnesium output. It is found that the maximum magnesium output is 318 kg·h^-1 when the briquetting's height is 100 mm, the edge height is 50 mm, the inner diameter is 100 mm, the bottom diameter is 200 mm, the notch diameter is 50 mm, and the notch number is 8. Compared with the traditional briquetting, the magnesium output increases by 43.9% and the gas consumption for per ton magnesium decreases by 30.5%. The internal temperature distribution of the briquetting in the experiment is consistent with the simulation results, indicating that the model of numerical simulation is reliable.