A coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model of jointed hard rock for compressed air energy storage

authored by

Xiaoying Zhuang, Runqiu Huang, Chao Liang, Timon Rabczuk

Abstract

Renewable energy resources such as wind and solar are intermittent, which causes instability when being connected to utility grid of electricity. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) provides an economic and technical viable solution to this problem by utilizing subsurface rock cavern to store the electricity generated by renewable energy in the form of compressed air. Though CAES has been used for over three decades, it is only restricted to salt rock or aquifers for air tightness reason. In this paper, the technical feasibility of utilizing hard rock for CAES is investigated by using a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) modelling of nonisothermal gas flow. Governing equations are derived from the rules of energy balance, mass balance, and static equilibrium. Cyclic volumetric mass source and heat source models are applied to simulate the gas injection and production. Evaluation is carried out for intact rock and rock with discrete crack, respectively. In both cases, the heat and pressure losses using air mass control and supplementary air injection are compared.

External Organisation(s)

Tongji University
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection
Stanford University
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Korea University

Type

Article

Journal

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

Volume

2014

No. of pages

11

ISSN

1024-123X

Publication date

19.01.2014

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Mathematics, General Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/179169 (Access: Open)