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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Georeservoirs
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1503158

Experimental study on creep characteristics of electrolyte-bearing salt rock under long-term triaxial cyclic loading

Provisionally accepted
Si Huang Si Huang 1Jun Lu Jun Lu 2Jian Wang Jian Wang 2Xinghui Fu Xinghui Fu 3Yaping Fu Yaping Fu 2Yinping Li Yinping Li 1Xilin Shi Xilin Shi 1*Zhikai Dong Zhikai Dong 4Kai Zhao Kai Zhao 1Peng Li Peng Li 1Mingnan Xu Mingnan Xu 1Xiangsheng Chen Xiangsheng Chen 5
  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Wuhan, China
  • 2 PipeChina Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
  • 3 Jiangsu Suyan Jingshen Co., Ltd., Huai’an, China
  • 4 Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
  • 5 East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    During the operation of the Salt Cavern Flow Battery (SCFB) system, the rock surrounding a salt cavern is subjected to erosion by the electrolyte. To study the creep characteristics of electrolyte-bearing salt rock under long-term triaxial cyclic loading in SCFB, a triaxial creep experiment with a cycle period of one day was conducted. The results indicated that, when not subjected to failure, the axial stress-strain curve of electrolyte-bearing sample undergoes only two phases of "sparse-dense", entering dense phase approximately 4 cycles earlier than that of the sample without electrolyte. Under the same stress conditions, the strain generated in electrolyte-bearing salt rock surpasses that of sample without electrolyte, demonstrating an initial rapid increase followed by a gradual stabilization trend. The stressstrain curve of electrolyte-bearing sample in a single cycle can be divided into six stages. The number of cycles has almost no effect on the axial strain in stages I, IV, V and VI, and the axial strain in stages IV and VI is basically 0. Additionally, the elastic deformation generated in stage I is basically recovered in stage V. The strain in stage II gradually decreases and disappears in the 4th cycle, which is 13 cycles earlier than that of the sample without electrolyte. The creep rate of electrolyte-bearing sample shows a trend of "gradual decrease-basically stabilization" as the number of cycles increases, and the creep experiment contains only the decay creep stage and steady creep stage. Irreversible deformation of electrolyte-bearing sample exhibits a gradual decrease followed by stabilization with increasing number of cycles. The research findings hold significant implications for the stability analysis of SCFB systems.

    Keywords: Salt rock,, Creep characteristics,, triaxial cyclic loading,, Elastic modulus,Salt cavern, Stress-strain curve

    Received: 28 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Lu, Wang, Fu, Fu, Li, Shi, Dong, Zhao, Li, Xu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xilin Shi, State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Wuhan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.