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Field Experimental and Theoretical Research on Creep Shrinkage Mechanism of Ultra-Deep Energy Storage Salt Cavern

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Abstract

Salt caverns are internationally recognized as excellent facilities for underground energy storage. Creep shrinkage deformation will occur in deep salt caverns under the action of high-ground stress, and it is a key factor to evaluate the safety of salt caverns. However, there has been no salt cavern creep shrinkage mechanism research on ultra-deep salt caverns. In this paper, the creep shrinkage mechanism of an ultra-deep salt cavern is established from the theory, numerical simulation, and field application. First, the actual creep field experiments (pressure testing and sonar testing) of the salt cavern (depth ≥ 2000 m) are carried out. Second, theoretical models of salt cavern creep shrinkage are established from four influence aspects (creep shrinkage, heat conduction, salt dissolution, and brine permeability). Third, a 3D geological model is built to analyze the creep stability of deep salt caverns based on their field conditions. The novelty of this paper is analyzing the creep shrinkage of the ultra-salt cavern by the theoretical model, numerical model, and field experimental data systematically. The results show that the shrinkage of the salt cavern and brine thermal expansion is key factors leading to pressure lifting of the salt cavern, which accounts for 0.6121 and 0.2147 in the four influence aspects. Three creep phases are obtained: rapid rising stage, steady rising stage and decelerating rising stage. The study provides a reference for the creep shrinkage and field application of salt caverns.

Highlights

  • Creep field experiments of the salt cavern are carried out.

  • Theoretical models of ultra-deep salt cavern creep mechanisms are built.

  • An ultra-deep 3D salt cavern creep numerical model is built to analyze the creep stability of salt caverns.

  • A mathematical model is proposed to analyze the factors that influence salt cavern creep.

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                                                                          Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study can be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

SCOS:

Salt cavern oil storage

DEM:

Discrete element method

RPT:

Rate process theory

B :

Dilatancy safety factor

ES:

Effective strain

\(\varepsilon_{\text{v}}\) :

The deviatoric strain tensor

\(J_2\) :

The second invariant of deviatoric stress tensor

\(I_1\) :

The first invariant of the stress tensor

q :

The flow rate

V :

The volume of salt cavern

\(\dot{\varepsilon }_{{\text{cr}}}\) :

The salt cavern volume closure rate

\(\alpha_{\text{b}}\) :

Temperature expansion coefficient

\(\dot{T}_{\text{c}}\) :

Derivative of temperature

\(P_\infty\) :

The formation pressure

\(P_{\text{C}}\) :

The salt cavern pressure

\(T_\infty\) :

The ground temperature

\(b_{ij}\) :

The elements in the matrix

\(\overline{b}_{ij}\) :

The elements of the normalized matrix

AHP:

Analytic hierarchy process

\(\overline{W}_i\) :

The matrix that is summed by row

\(W_i\) :

The weight of the AHP model

\(\dot{P}\) :

The pressure rise rate

\(\dot{T}\) :

The temperature rise rate

\(\alpha , \beta\) :

The coefficient of the thermal equation

K :

The overall micro-penetration rate

\(P_{\text{C}}\) :

The brine pressure

\(P_0\) :

The natural pore pressure

R :

The diameter of salt cavern

\(\eta\) :

The dynamic viscosity coefficient

T :

The absolute temperature of salt rock

\(\dot{\varepsilon }^{ss}\) :

The steady strain rate

\(A^{{\prime}}\), n, Q/R :

Three empirical parameters

\(E_{{\text{salt}}}\) :

Young’s modulus

\(\alpha_{{\text{salt}}}\) :

The coefficient of thermal expansion

\(\dot{\varepsilon }^{{\text{tr}}}\) :

The instantaneous strain rate

\(P_{{\text{wh}}}\) :

The diesel pressure

CI:

The consistency index

CR:

The final accuracy index

RI:

The random consistency index

\(\lambda\) :

The maximum eigenvalue

n :

The order of the matrix

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52122403), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant No. 2019324), and the CAS Hundred Talents Program (Grant No. Y826031C01). Acknowledging the Wei Hu in SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Engineering Co., Ltd, Qianjiang, Hubei.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China

    Xinxing Wei, Xilin Shi, Yinping Li, Peng Li, Shengnan Ban, Tianfu Xue, Hejuan Liu & Chunhe Yang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xinxing Wei, Xilin Shi, Yinping Li, Peng Li, Shengnan Ban, Tianfu Xue, Hejuan Liu & Chunhe Yang

  3. Hubei Key Laboratory of Geo-Environmental Engineering Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Yinping Li

  4. State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Shijie Zhu

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  1. Xinxing Wei
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Wei, X., Shi, X., Li, Y. et al. Field Experimental and Theoretical Research on Creep Shrinkage Mechanism of Ultra-Deep Energy Storage Salt Cavern. Rock Mech Rock Eng 57, 287–305 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-023-03549-z

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