Study the Behaviour of Underground Oil Cavern under Static Loading Condition

The country's population is increasing rapidly and the need to make lives easier daily. Some of the essential needs for this generation are crude oil and electricity. India, unfortunately, does not possess any oil reserves to meet the needs of the country’s demands. So, India is importing oil from other countries. Whenever there are situations like war, pandemic (COVID-19), and other emergencies, the natural oil reserved countries cannot export the oil to other countries which will lead to great chaos in the country. To avoid this situation storing the crude oil is necessary. Building surface giant structures for storing the oil is difficult and won’t be economical. So, India is constructing giant underground structures called caverns, which will reserve the oil. The present study is focused on the stability of the underground cavern structure and understanding the importance of the water-curtaining system. To analyse the stresses and displacement 2D modelling has been done. In this, wet and dry models are prepared and analysed based on the available geological and geotechnical data to determine the stresses around the cavern and the displacement which will reach the surface due to excavation.