Mechanical stability of a salt cavern submitted to high-frequency cycles

When performing numerical computations including fast pressure changes or high-frequency cyclic loading, the following spatial and time scales should be considered.

• Spatial scale: the thermally disturbed zone must contain at least several mesh elements in the radial direction. A well-adapted radial size Δxmax for the largest elements is:

x rΔmax /10 (1)

where Δ r = thickness of the thermally disturbed zone. Mesh elements should not be larger than Δxmax in the direction perpendicular to the cavern wall.