• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.178-184
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• 2011

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is a combination of energy storage and generation by storing compressed air using off-peak power for generation at times of peak demand. In general, both charging and discharging of high-pressure vessel are unsteady processes, where the pressure is varying. These varying conditions result in low efficiencies of compression and expansion. In this paper, a new constant-pressure CAES system to overcome the current problem is proposed. An energy analysis of the system based on the concept of exergy was performed to evaluate the energy density and efficiency of the system in comparison with the conventional CAES system. The new constant-pressure CAES system combined with pumped hydro storage requires the smaller cavern with only half of the storage volume for variable-pressure CAES and has a higher efficiency of system.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.394-405
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• 2011

In this paper, we applied coupled non-isothermal, multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical numerical modeling using TOUGH-FLAC coupled analysis to study the complex thermodynamic and geomechanical performance of underground lined rock caverns (LRC) for compressed air energy storage (CAES). Mechanical stress in concrete linings as well as pressure and temperature within a storage cavern were examined during initial and long-term operation of the storage cavern for CAES. Our geomechanical analysis showed that effective stresses could decrease due to air penetration pressure, and tangential tensile stress could develop in the linings as a result of the air pressure exerted on the inner surface of the lining, which would result in tensile fracturing. According to the simulation in which the tensile tangential stresses resulted in radial cracks, increment of linings' permeability and air leakage though the linings, tensile fracturing occurred at the top and at the side wall of the cavern, and the permeability could increase to $5.0{\times}10^{-13}m^2$ from initially prescribed $10{\times}10^{-20}m^2$. However, this air leakage was minor (about 0.02% of the daily air injection rate) and did not significantly impact the overall storage pressure that was kept constant thanks to sufficiently air tight surrounding rocks, which supports the validity of the concrete-lined underground caverns for CAES.