• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.287-294
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• 2002

CAES which is called as a compressed air energy storage was firstly developed at Huntorf, German in 1978. The capacity of that system was 290MW, and it can be treated as a first commercial power plant. CAES has a lot of merits, such as saving the unit price of power generation, averaging the peak demand, improvement of maintenance, enlarging the benefit of dynamic use. According to the literature survey, the unlined rock cavern should be proposed to be a reasonable storing style as a method of compressed air storage in Korea. We decided the hill of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources as CAES site. If we construct the underground spaces in this site, the demand for electricity nearby Taejon should be considered. So we could determine the capacity of the power plant as a 350MW, This capacity needs a underground space of 200,000㎥, and we can conclude 4 parallel tunnels 550m deep from the surface through the numerical studies, Design parameters were achieved from 300m depth boring job and image processing job.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2009

Flexible and lined segment air-tight tunnelling technology for Compressed Air Energy Storage-Gas Turbine(CAES-G/T) power generation was introduced. The distinguished characteristics of the air-tight tunnel system can be summarized by two facts. One is that the high inner pressure due to compressed air is sustained by surrounding rock mass with allowing sufficient displacement of lining segment. The other is that the air-tightness of storage tunnel was enhanced by adopting a specially designed rubber sheet. The flexible lined air-tight underground tunnel can be constructed at a comparatively shallow depth and near urban area so that the locally distributed CAES-G/T power generation can be accomplished. In addition, this air-tight tunnelling technology can be applied to a variety of energy underground storage tunnels such as Compressed Natural Gas(CNG), Liquifed Petroleum Gas(LPG), DeMethyl Ether(DME) etc.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.297-306
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• 2011

In this paper, we performed thermodynamic energy balance analysis of the underground lined rock cavern for compressed air energy storage (CAES) using the results of multi-phase heat flow analysis to simulate complex groundwater-compressed air flow around the cavern as well as heat transfer to concrete linings and surrounding rock mass. Our energy balance analysis demonstrated that the energy loss for a daily compression and decompression cycle predominantly depends on the energy loss by heat conduction to the concrete linings and surrounding rock mass for a sufficiently air-tight system with low permeability of the concrete linings. Overall energy efficiency of the underground lined rock caverns for CAES was sensitive to air injection temperature, and the energy loss by heat conduction can be minimized by keeping the air injection temperature closer to the ambient temperature of the surroundings. In such a case, almost all the heat loss during compression phase was gained back in a subsequent decompression phase. Meanwhile, the influence of heat conductivity of the concrete linings to energy efficiency was negligible.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.319-325
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• 2013

The objective of this study is to assess risks which might occur in connection with the storage of the highly compressed air in underground opening. Risk factors were selected throughout literature survey and analysis for the characteristic of CAES. Large risk factors were categorized in three components; planning and design phase, construction phase, and operation & maintenance phases. Large category was composed of 8 medium risk groups and 24 sub-risks. AHP technique was applied in order to analyze the questionnaires answered by experts and high-risk factors were selected by evaluating the relative importance of risks. AHP analysis showed that the operation & maintenance phases are the highest risk group among three components of large category and the highest risk group of eight medium risk groups is risk associated with the quality and safety. Risk having the highest risk level in 24 sub-risks is evaluated to be a failure of tightness security of inner containment storing compressed air.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.287-296
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• 2011

We performed a numerical modeling study of thermodynamic and multiphase fluid flow processes associated with underground compressed air energy storage (CAES) in a lined rock cavern (LRC). We investigated air tightness performance by calculating air leakage rate of the underground storage cavern with concrete linings at a comparatively shallow depth of 100 m. Our air-mass balance analysis showed that the key parameter to assure the long-term air tightness of such a system was the permeability of both concrete linings and surrounding rock mass. It was noted that concrete linings with a permeability of less than $1.0{\times}10^{-18}\;m^2$ would result in an acceptable air leakage rate of less than 1% with the operational pressure range between 5 and 8 MPa. We also found that air leakage could be effectively prevented and the air tightness performance of underground lined rock cavern is enhanced if the concrete lining is kept at a higher moisture content.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.446-454
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• 2010

CAES-G/T (Compressed Air Energy Storage - Gas Turbine) power generation is a likely option for the buffer facility stabilizing the fluctuation of the renewable powers, such as wind and solar powers. Considering the geological conditions, the underground CAES facility is most probable if the CAES-G/T generation is planed in Korea. In this kind of facility, a concrete plug is installed to seal the compressed air in the container, so that the selection of the shape and dimension of concrete plug could be a critical design factor. The stability evaluation of two types of plug was carried out by investigating the distribution of the factor of safety in the plugs and the distribution of contact pressure over the contact surface. The analysis result shows that the taper-shaped plug is more structurally stable than the wedge-shaped plug for the given geological condition. Possible separation of the rock-concrete interface around the spring line of the wedge-shaped plug is anticipated, which means the possible leakage of compressed air through the side wall and also means the poor mobilization of frictional resistance on that area.

• 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.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.434-445
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• 2010

Underground compressed air energy storage (CAES) system in a lined rock cavern is considered one of the promising large-scale energy storage technologies. In this study, permeabilities of concrete lining block and its construction joint, which are the major components of an air tightness system of the undeground CAES, were measured from a model experiment. From the experiment, it was found that intrinsic permeability of construction joint was larger than that of concrete block by the order scale of $10^1{\sim}10^4$, so that it would be very important to control the quality of construction joints in-situ in order to secure air tightness of storage system. And the permeability of construction joint could be decreased as low as that of the concrete block by pasting an acryl-type adhesive on bonding surfaces. Higher degrees of water saturation of the concrete block resulted in the lower permeability, which is more preferable in the viewpoint of air tightness of storage cavern.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.249-256
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• 2000

According to the industrial restructuring in the late 1980's, most domestic mines have been shutdown or suspended in operation. The closed underground excavation caverns remain in their abandoned conditions, and they will potentially cause environmental hazards. To evaluate the feasibility of the utilization of the abandoned caverns, the foreign crises were studied. As a result, we proposed several possible examples including underground storage cavern fur food products, underground compressed air energy system(CAES), and underground repository (or incineration plant) of industrial wastes. Among them, the underground waste repositories are most probable to be seen in Korea in the near future. For this, the study in rock engineering aspects should be conducted, which will include the establishment of support system and safety measure of the abandoned underground excavation caverns.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2012

In a material, micro-cracks can be progressively occurred, propagated and finally lead to failure when it is subjected to cyclic or periodic loading less than its ultimate strength. This phenomenon, fatigue, is usually considered in a metal, alloy and structures under repeated loading conditions. In underground structures, a static creep behavior rather than a dynamic fatigue behavior is mostly considered. However, when compressed air is stored in a rock cavern, an inner pressure is periodically changed due to repeated in- and-out process of compressed air. Therefore mechanical properties of surrounding rock mass and an inner lining system under cyclic loading/unloading conditions should be investigated. In this study, considering an underground lined rock cavern for compressed air energy storage (CAES), the mechanical properties of a lining system, that is, concrete lining and plug under periodic loading/unloading conditions were characterized through cyclic bending tests and shear tests. From these tests, the stability of the plug was evaluated and the S-N line of the concrete lining was obtained.