Empirical analysis of unloading creep damage mechanism of salt rock at 110 °C

Underground energy storage in salt caverns involves operating in high-temperature conditions within deep strata, leading to unloading creep in the surrounding salt rock during cavity construction and natural gas extraction. Therefore, understanding the deformation and damage evolution of salt rock in such conditions is vital for ensuring safe construction and prolonged operation of deep salt cavern gas storage. The present study involves graded unloading creep tests and synchronous acoustic emission tests on the salt rock at 110 °C. The moment tensor inversion theory is employed to analyze focal mechanisms and microscopic crack propagation modes based on the test results. The findings reveal that under constant deviatoric stress, decreasing confining pressure exponentially increases the duration of the deceleration creep stage in salt rock. The creep increment and axial steady-state creep rate exhibited a U-shape trend. Instantaneous strain during stress change mainly involves elastic-plastic strain, where the instantaneous strain decreases first and then increases, exhibiting hardening characteristics in the middle process. The evolution of microcracks in salt rock can be categorized into three stages: compaction stage, stable propagation stage, and accelerated propagation stage. The acoustic emission energy, b-value, and fractal dimension of each stage are different. In unloading creep tests, the peak frequency in acoustic emission signal presents zonal distribution in low-frequency and high-frequency regions. It is found that as the confining pressure decreases, the peak frequency of acoustic emission signal and the proportion of high-frequency signal decrease, and the b-value and fractal dimension exhibit an upward-fluctuation-downward trend. The rupture slip angle of the acoustic emission source can effectively characterize the creep slip behavior in salt rock crystals. The slip gradually shifts from vertical to horizontal, while the strike angle and dip angle of rupture orientation are minimally affected by unloading. The obtained results can provide a reference for the safe construction and the design of the operation pressure for ultra-deep salt cavern gas storage.