Study on the Effect of the Water Injection Rate on the Cavern Leaching Strings of Salt Cavern Gas Storages

In the early construction of cavern leaching in salt cavern gas storages, the inner leaching tubing is often blocked, frequently leading to the bending deformation phenomenon of the leaching strings, which can result in out-of-control cavity shapes. It is difficult to monitor the stress, vibration, and morphological changes of the inner tube during the construction of a cavity. There are few research results in this field at home and abroad, and they are limited only to preliminary explorations of the mechanism or summaries and speculation of the field operation. In this paper, an experimental device for testing the dynamic characteristics of salt cavern leaching strings is developed based on the similarity principle. The device is used to simulate two types of operation processes, i.e., the direct and reverse circulation leaching processes. The experimental data are processed using the modal analysis method to obtain the vibration characteristic parameters of the inner leaching tubing in the circulation process with identical flow rates inside the tubing and the annular region. The following main conclusions can be drawn: The circulation mode has no significant effect on the vibration frequency of cavern leaching strings. The deformation characteristics of cavern leaching strings during direct and reverse circulation are identical, featuring maximum deformation at the bottom and minimum deformation in the middle. The maximum deformation of cavern leaching strings during reverse circulation is about 1.5 times that during direct circulation. Through an experimental investigation and analysis, the effects of the water injection rate and the cavern leaching method on the vibration frequency and bending deformation of cavern leaching strings was determined, providing a reference for further solving the bending problem of cavern leaching strings in combination with engineering practice.