A study on the estimation of temperature distribution around gas storage cavern

As there are many advantages on underground caverns, such as safety and operation, they can also be used for gas storage purpose. When liquefied gas is stored underground, the cryogenic temperature of the gas will affect the stability of the storage cavern. In order to store the liquefied gas successfully, it is essential to estimate the exact temperature distribution of the rock mass around the cavern. In this study, an analytic solution and a conceptual model that can estimate three-dimensional temperature distribution around the storage cavern are suggested. When calculating the heat transfer within a solid, it is likely to consider the solid as the intersection of two or more infinite or semi-infinite geometries. Therefore heat transfer solution for the solid is expressed by the product of the dimensionless temperatures of the geometries, which are used to form the combined solid. Based on the multi-dimensional transient heat transfer theory, the analytic solution is successfully derived by assuming the cavern shape to be of simplified geometry. Also, a conceptual model is developed by using the analytic solution of this study. By performing numerical experiments of this multi-dimensional model, the temperature distribution of the analytic solution is compared with that of numerical analysis and theoretical solutions.