Mechanical stability of a salt cavern submitted to rapid pressure variations: Application to the underground storage of natural gas, compressed air and hydrogen

Salt caverns used for the underground storage of large volumes of natural gas are in high demand given the ever-increasing energy needs. The storage of renewable energy is also envisaged in these salt caverns for example, storage of compressed air and hydrogen mass storage. In both cases, salt caverns are more solicited than before because they are subject to rapid injection and withdrawal rates. These new operating modes raise new mechanical problems, illustrated in particular by sloughing, and falling of overhanging blocks at cavern wall. Indeed, to the purely mechanical stress related to changes in gas pressure variations, repeated dozens of degrees Celsius of temperature variation are superimposed; causes in particular during withdrawal, additional tensile stresses whom may lead to fractures at cavern wall; whose evolution could be dangerous. The mechanical behavior of rock salt is known: it is elasto-viscoplastic, nonlinear and highly thermo sensitive. The existing rock salt constitutive laws and failures and damages criteria have been used to analyze the behavior of caverns under the effects of these new loading. The study deals with the thermo mechanics of rocks and helps to analyze the effects of these new operations modes on the structural stability of salt caverns. The approach was to firstly design and validate a thermodynamic model of the behavior of gas in the cavern. This model was used to analyze blowout in gas salt cavern. Then, with the thermo mechanical coupling, to analyze the effects of rapid withdrawal, rapid injection and daily cycles on the structural stability of caverns. At the experimental level, we sought the optimal conditions to the occurrence and the development of cracks on a pastille and a block of rock salt. The creep behavior of rock salt specimens in triaxial extension also was analyzed. (author)