Technical Papers
May 17, 2023

An Improved Dilatancy Boundary for Salt Rock

Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 149, Issue 8

Abstract

Salt layers and domes have been used to store hydrocarbons and to dispose of nuclear wastes. One of the most important properties of rock salt is its good deformability, which can neutralize the deviatoric stress and heal damage. Structural stability is one crucial requirement in salt cavern design and construction. Various criteria and methods have been proposed for salt cavern design and stability analysis. This paper investigated the advantages and limitations of various stability criteria. The results suggest that the stability criterion proposed by De Vries et al. is the most suitable approach for stability analysis. However, the effects of the stress path and history are not considered in this criterion. To overcome this shortcoming and to integrate effects of the stress path and history within the criterion, an updatable dilatancy criterion is proposed. In the proposed dilatancy criterion, a representative parameter is defined based on the healing and damage that occurred in a previous cycle of loading and unloading, which takes into account the stress path and history and their effects on the behavior of rock salt in subsequent cycles. The new criterion gives deeper insight into the strength of rock salt based on previous damage-healing background, and is useful in appropriate design and operation of salt cavern.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. In addition to details of the tests performed by De Vries et al. (2005), all the parameter calculations of the DP and RP are available. Data analysis, such as the D1, D2, and n correlations against the DP and RP calculations are available. Additionally, the calculation of the new updatable dilation boundary using D1, D2, n, DP, and RP is available.

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Go to Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 149Issue 8August 2023

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Received: Sep 27, 2022
Accepted: Jan 9, 2023
Published online: May 17, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 17, 2023

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Rahim Habibi, S.M.ASCE [email protected]
Ph.D. Student, Dept. Geothermal Energy & Reservoir Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany. Email: [email protected]

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