Stability and tangential strain analysis of large-scale compressed air energy storage cavern

Compressed air energy storage is a kind of technology to storage energy and generate electricity using compressed air as the medium. Underground structure for compressed air energy storage(CAES) is a decisive factor to choose the location of compressed air energy storage plant, in which artificially-excavated hard rock cavern is more worth researching for little restricted to geology and wide adaptability. To select a scheme of underground cavern for compressed air energy storage, the stability of CAES cavern under high inner pressure is studied by FEM. Plastic zone and tangential strain of CAES cavern with typical buried depth (200, 300, 500 m), various layouts(tunnels and jars) and dimensions, are calculated by finite element software Abaqus. By analyzing the stress and deformation characteristics of surrounding rock after excavation and inflation, suitable cavern form is achieved. When surrounding rock class is. and inner pressure is 10 MPa, caverns buried in depth of 300 m are of good stability. Buried in the depth of 300 m, the maximum tangential strain of 6 m-diameter round cavern and jar cavern are 7.55x10(-4) and 5.54x10 (-4) respectively, which lays a foundation for research on elongation and durability of sealing material in different temperatures.