Insight into a shape of salt storage caverns

Salt caverns are used for over 70 years to store power sources and dispose of industrial wastes. The design of cavern shape and dimensions is still considered as a difficult engineering problem despite progress in geotechnical, construction and exploration methods. The rational design of cavern depends on mechanical parameters of rock salt and nonsalt rocks, stability conditions, safety requirements and stored material. However, most of these factors are related to geological factors like depth of cavern location, the geological structure of salt deposit, lithology of interlayers, petrology and mineralogy of rock salt and interlayers. The significant diversity in the geological conditions of different rock salt deposits contributed to the variety in shape and dimensions of salt caverns worldwide. In this paper, the examples of caverns developed in various salt deposits are presented. The shape of these caverns and its relation to geological features is presented. The influence of geological factors on the formation of irregularities in a cavern shape is described. Moreover, the evaluation of storage caverns located in Polish salt deposits in a view of the aforementioned geological factors is performed. The information and analysis described in this paper provide input which can be useful in future plans connected with the development of underground storage in Poland.