Abstract: Compressed air energy storage as a mainstream large-capacity energy storage technology is constrained by gas storage containers (underground salt caverns). In this study, cyclic loading tests are conducted on salt rock samples from salt caverns using a high-temperature creep testing device. Four stress cycle parameters, including upper limit stress, lower limit stress, mean stress, and half-amplitude stress, varied under sinusoidal conditions to investigate the influence of stress factors on the fatigue characteristics of salt caverns. Based on the experimental results, increasing the upper limit stress, mean stress, lower limit stress, or enlarging the half-amplitude stress all led to an increase in the deformation rate of tested samples. Notably, only when the upper limit stress was maintained while varying the lower limit stress, the magnitude of strain change remained relatively small. Within the cyclic stress range, the maximum deformation occurred at the upper limit stress, and the influence of holding stress on the sample was not significant when the stress was maintained at approximately 80% of the upper limit stress.

Key words: Compressed Air Energy Storage, Salt Caverns, Fatigue Characteristics, Stress Testing