ABSTRACT
The solution-mined salt caverns can be utilized to store the natural gas and also the high-radioactive waste, so it is important to analyze the long-term stability of salt caverns. A user-defined creep constitutive model is compiled as a dynamic link library (DLL) file that can be loaded whenever it is needed and implemented into the software FLAC3D. The stability after excavation and the law of the long-term volume convergence ratios of salt caverns selected in Jintan Salt Mine have been studied by the numerical method. The computation parameters are obtained from previous experimental results. The results show that the higher internal pressure will benefit the stability of salt caverns. The volume convergence ratios of salt caverns are below 22 percent as the running internal pressure of gas storage varies from 6 to 14.5 MPa. Based on the results of the numerical analysis, some useful advice has been provided for the construction and management of the gas storage in Jintan Salt Mine.
