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Stability analysis of complex behavior of salt cavern subjected to cyclic loading by laboratory measurement and numerical modeling using LOCAS (case study: Nasrabad gas storage salt cavern)

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Abstract

Stability analysis of salt caverns is a very complicated subject due to the coupled time-dependent thermo-mechanical behavior of salt during leaching and operational phase of the gas storage subjected to the cyclic loading. Because of purely plastic behavior of salt and the relevant convergence during injection and withdrawal, investigation of the salt cavern stability becomes more challenging. The objective of this study is stability analysis of Nasrabad salt cavern by numerical method using a comprehensive software entitled LOCAS having capability to model the complex time-dependent thermo-mechanical behavior of salt under cyclic loading of natural gas pressure. Measurement of geomechanical properties of salt is also the important requirement for modelling. First, geomechanical properties of Nasrabad salt including uniaxial and tri-axial compressive strength, tensile strength, uniaxial and tri-axial creep under different temperatures were measured. Thereafter, time-dependent behaviors and parameters of dilatancy criterion of the test results were analyzed by the advanced constitutive models for rock salt to obtain accurate parameters for modeling. Then, long-term stability was analyzed for Nasrabad salt cavern having different shapes, sizes, and depths under cyclic loading 3–8 MPa as minimum and maximum gas pressures. The results showed that an ellipsoidal cavern having initial volume of 100,000 m3 at 450 m depth by 0.3% creep closure rate per year and volume loss of 0.8% of the initial volume per year as ideal conditions can store 8,000,000 m3 natural gas with working capacity of about 6,000,000 m3.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank National Iranian Gas Company for cooperation in using salt cores and geological information of Nasrabad’s salt dome. The authors would like to extend their sincere thanks to Dr Benoit Brouard (Brouard Consulting) for using LOCAS software program that can simulate complex time-dependent thermo-mechanical behavior of gas-filled salt cavern under cyclic loading.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mining Engineering Department, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Rahim Habibi & Hassan Moomivand

  2. Mining Engineering Department, University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran

    Mortez Ahmadi

  3. Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

    Amin Asgari

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  1. Rahim Habibi
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Correspondence to Hassan Moomivand.

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Habibi, R., Moomivand, H., Ahmadi, M. et al. Stability analysis of complex behavior of salt cavern subjected to cyclic loading by laboratory measurement and numerical modeling using LOCAS (case study: Nasrabad gas storage salt cavern). Environ Earth Sci 80, 317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09620-8

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