Abstract
The ventilation effect has a direct influence on the efficiency and security of the construction of an underground cavern group. Traditional forced ventilation schemes may be ineffective and result in resource wastage. Based on the construction ventilation of the Jinzhou underground oil storage project, an axial flow gallery ventilation mode using shafts as the fresh air inlet was proposed. A 3D steady RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) approach with the RNG (Renormalization-group) k-ε turbulence model was used to study airflow behavior and hazardous gas dispersion when different ventilation schemes were employed. Field test values of the air velocity and CO concentration in the main cavern and construction roadway were also adopted to validate the RNG k-ε turbulence model. The results showed that the axial flow gallery ventilation mode can ensure that the direction of air flow is the same as that of heavy trucks, fresh air is always near the excavation face, and the disturbance of the construction process is greatly reduced. The scheme is suitable for large-scale caverns with a ventilation distance less than 2 km, and an intermediate construction shaft is not needed. When the ventilation distance exceeds 2 km, it is possible to use jet fans to assist the axial flow gallery ventilation mode or to completely adopt jet-flow gallery ventilation.
Highlights
The large water sealing cavern is an underground space system for storing crude oil, gasoline, diesel and other energy sources under the stable groundwater level [1]
The results provide a useful reference for construction ventilation in large-scale underground storage caverns
We present the axial-flow gallery ventilation scheme after the upper layer excavation of the cavern is completed and connected with the shaft
Summary
The large water sealing cavern is an underground space system for storing crude oil, gasoline, diesel and other energy sources under the stable groundwater level [1]. Compared with the traditional way of storing crude oil, the underground water sealing cavern has the advantages of less investment, less land occupation, minor pollution, little wastage, high safety performance, low cost of operation and management, fast loading and unloading. The drilling and blasting method, a traditional and cost-effective construction method, has been widely used in the excavation of underground caverns [3]. Ventilation is the only means of air exchange inside and outside the cavern, and it is an indispensable key technology during the construction process [4].
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