Leached salt cavern design using a fracture criterion for rock salt

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:7149787

Preece, D S; Wawersik, W R

In 1975 Congress passed the Energy Conservation Act to establish a US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) with a capacity of 750 million barrels of crude oil. The most economic storage medium was determined to be salt caverns leached in salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. Salt caverns existed at several sites when the reserve was created. These were obtained by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and used to initiate SPR oil storage. In order to meet the storage capacity approved by Congress, new caverns also had to be leached. To support the resulting design effort, finite element computer programs have been used to determine the creep closure and structural stability of salt caverns. Using site specific material properties including creep models, elastic moduli and fracture data, the finite element analyses have been replaced earlier empirical approaches to cavern design. This report presents results of such finite element analyses to determine the best cavern roof shape and the minimum pillar to diameter ratio, P/D. These numerical predictions indicate that the current cavern design is safe. 12 references, 7 figures, 2 tables.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 7149787
• Report Number(s): SAND-83-2345C; CONF-840633-6; ON: DE84009457
• Resource Relation: Conference: 25. US symposium on rock mechanics, Evanston, IL, USA, 25 Jun 1984; Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
SALT CAVERNS
DESIGN
LEACHING
STABILITY
SALT DEPOSITS
CREEP
FRACTURES
POISSON RATIO
YOUNG MODULUS
STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
ROOFS
SUPPORT PILLARS
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
CAVITIES
DISSOLUTION
FAILURES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
RESERVES
RESOURCES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STORAGE
024000* - Petroleum- Storage- (-1989)