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Failure Monitoring and Leakage Detection for Underground Storage of Compressed Air Energy in Lined Rock Caverns

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Abstract

Underground compressed air energy storage (CAES) in lined rock caverns (LRCs) provides a promising solution for storing energy on a large scale. One of the essential issues facing underground CAES implementation is the risk of air leakage from the storage caverns. Compressed air may leak through an initial defect in the inner containment liner, such as imperfect welds and construction joints, or through structurally damaged points of the liner during CAES operation for repeated compression and decompression cycles. Detection of the air leakage and identification of the leakage location around the underground storage cavern are required. In this study, we analyzed the displacement (or strain) monitoring method to detect the mechanical failure of liners that provides major pathways of air leakage using a previously developed numerical technique simulating the coupled thermodynamic and geomechanical behavior of underground CAES in LRCs. We analyzed the use of pressure monitoring to detect air leakage and characterize the leakage location. From the simulation results, we demonstrated that tangential strain monitoring at the inner face of sealing liners could enable one to detect failure. We also demonstrated that the use of the cross-correlation method between pressure history data measured at various sensors could identify the air leak location. These results may help in the overall design of a monitoring and alarm system for the successful implementation and operation of CAES in LRCs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Herbert Einstein at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his careful and detailed review, which improved the clarity and quality of the paper considerably. This research was supported by the Basic Research Project of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM, Project code no. GP2015-010) that is funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea. Funding from KIGAM for Dr. Jonny Rutqvist and Berkeley Lab was provided by the US Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Dr. Hyung-Mok Kim was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (KRF) that is funded by the Ministry of Education (2013R1A1A2004605).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy and Mineral Resources Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, 143-747, Korea

    Hyung-Mok Kim

  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Jonny Rutqvist

  3. Geologic Environment Division, Underground Space Department, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), 124 Gwahang-no, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-350, Korea

    Hyunwoo Kim, Dohyun Park, Dong-Woo Ryu & Eui-Seob Park

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  1. Hyung-Mok Kim
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  2. Jonny Rutqvist
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  3. Hyunwoo Kim
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  4. Dohyun Park
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  5. Dong-Woo Ryu
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  6. Eui-Seob Park
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Correspondence to Hyunwoo Kim.

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Kim, HM., Rutqvist, J., Kim, H. et al. Failure Monitoring and Leakage Detection for Underground Storage of Compressed Air Energy in Lined Rock Caverns. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 573–584 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-015-0761-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-015-0761-7

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