Stability Analysis of Storage Caverns in Bedded Salt Rock Formation

Abstract:

Salt cavern storage is usually in bedded salt rock formation except salt dome, in particular in China. The rocks composing a bedded salt rock formation, e.g., mudstone, rock salt, interlayer, etc., often present viscoelastic-plastic behaviors, which is an important influencing factor of the long-term stability of salt caverns in it. Modelling the rheological behavior with the Druck-Prager creep model, an example of stability analysis of four salt caverns at Jintan Salt Mine of China with the finite element method is elaborated in this paper. The results show that besides the inevitable loss of effective storage room with time due to creep deformation, which decreases evidently with internal pressure but decreases slowly at a certain pressure value, the variation of operating internal pressure in each cavern can cause the change of volumes of other nearby caverns and then affect the stability of all the caverns. The internal pressure difference should be as small as possible during the operation of salt caverns.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 353-356)
• Pages: 1345-1352
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.353-356.1345
• Online since: August 2013
• Authors: Ming Zhang*, Qiang Yang
• Keywords: Creep, Drucker-Prager, Finite Element, Salt Cavern, Salt Rock

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