CCC - integrated multiscale study of salt cavern abandonment in the Netherlands

The KEM-17 project of the Dutch State Supervision of Mines presented a critical review of concepts of cavern abandonment and related science. It recommended that analyses of cavern abandonment are done as an integrated project, addressing (i) micro-scale physical processes, (ii) cavern scale models based on field scale experiments and numerical models, (iii) the salt dome scale, to model the far field of the salt caverns. The Cavern Closure Consortium (CCC) project is based on this, focusing on the Haaksbergen and Heiligerlee cavern fields in the Netherlands. We build on (i) innovative deformation experiments, integrated with state of the art microstructural analysis to define constitutive equations for deformation and permeation, focusing on the poorly understood domain below 8 MPa differential stress, (ii) numerical finite element models of the cavern field combined with cavern-scale field experiments to define the closure parameters and temperature evolution of the cavern, and (iii) state of the art numerical models at the scale of the whole salt pillow or salt dome to define the "ist-Zustand". All these contributions are closely integrated and will lead to much improved prediction of the evolution of the caverns after closure and abandonment.