Stability of underground oil and gas storage caverns in Korea - Mechanical and hydrological aspect

Since the early 1970s, Korea constructed many large-scale underground energy storage caverns in response to the rapid industrial development. In this period, rock mechanics engineers in Korea gained valuable experiences in developing underground space technologies. A brief description of underground projects including oil and gas storage is presented. Mechanical and hydrological stability analyses of the storage caverns also are introduced. These analyses were conducted by using a finite element method, back analysis, rock block analysis, and fracture network analysis. In each analysis, the rock mass around the caverns is modeled as a rigid body, elastic, visco-elastic, visco-plastic or elasto-plastic porous medium.