Thermo-mechanical investigation of salt caverns for short-term hydrogen storage

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Norbert Böttcher - , Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BRG), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Uwe Jens Görke - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Olaf Kolditz - , Chair of Applied Environmental Systems Analysis, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Thomas Nagel - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Trinity College Dublin (Author)

Abstract

To investigate the temperature influence on the cavern capacity, a numerical model was developed in order to simulate the thermo-mechanical behaviour of salt caverns during cyclic hydrogen storage. The model considers the thermodynamic characteristics of the storage medium as well as the heat transport and the temperature-dependent material properties of the host rock. Therefore, a well-known visco-elastic constitutive model was modified to describe temperature effects of rock salt and implemented into the freely available simulator OpenGeoSys. Thermal and mechanical processes are solved using a finite element approach, connected via a staggered coupling scheme. Numerical analyses were performed and evaluated using basic criteria for cavern safety and convergence. The results show that large temperature amplitudes in the working gas may lead to tensile stresses at the cavern boundary. Reducing the frequency of the cyclic loading is a way to reduce temperature variations and to avoid tensile failure. Furthermore, the influence of cavern shape was investigated. Narrow cylindrical caverns converge faster than spherical ones of the same volume and are subjected to a higher risk of structural failure.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number98
JournalEnvironmental earth sciences
Volume76
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Hydrogen storage, OpenGeoSys, Renewable energy storage, Rock salt caverns, Thermo-mechanical modelling