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Thermomechanical effects of a rapid depressurization in a gas cavern

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Abstract

Rapid gas depressurization leads to gas cooling followed by slow gas warming when the cavern is kept idle. Gas temperature drop depends upon withdrawal rate and cavern size. Thermal tensile stresses, resulting from gas cooling, may generate fractures at the wall and roof of a salt cavern. However, in most cases, the depth of penetration of these fractures is small. These fractures are perpendicular to the cavern wall. The distance between two parallel fractures becomes larger when fractures penetrate deeper in the rock mass, as some fractures do not keep growing. These conclusions can be supported by numerical computations based on fracture mechanics. Salt slabs are created. However, these slabs remain strongly bounded to the rock mass and it is believed that in many cases their weight is not large enough to allow them to break off the cavern wall. Depth of penetration of the fractures must be computed to prove that they cannot be a concern from the point of view of cavern tightness.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded partially by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) in the framework of the SACRE Project, which includes researchers from EDF, GEOSTOCK, PROMES (Perpignan), HEI (Lille) and Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LMS, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

    Pierre Bérest & Hippolyte Djakeun-Djizanne

  2. Brouard Consulting, Paris, France

    Benoit Brouard

  3. Storengy, Bois-Colombes, France

    Grégoire Hévin

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  1. Pierre Bérest
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  2. Benoit Brouard
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  3. Hippolyte Djakeun-Djizanne
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  4. Grégoire Hévin
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Correspondence to Pierre Bérest.

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Bérest, P., Brouard, B., Djakeun-Djizanne, H. et al. Thermomechanical effects of a rapid depressurization in a gas cavern. Acta Geotech. 9, 181–186 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0233-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0233-8

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