ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411

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Experimental investigation of mechanical properties of bedded salt rock

W. Lianga,b,, C. Yangb, Y. Zhaoa, M.B. Dusseaultc, J. Liub
a
Mining Technology Institute, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
b
Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
c
Earth Sciences Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Received 8 June 2006; received in revised form 21 July 2006; accepted 18 September 2006
Available online 20 November 2006

Abstract

Because of salt cavern utilization for liquid, gas and solid waste storage, salt rock mechanical properties are needed for assessments of
facility, stability and safety. Bedded salt deposits are widespread and used as much or more than diapiric salt bodies as storage facility
hosts, but experimental data on the mechanical properties of bedded salt rock with impurities are far less common than data available on
relatively pure diapiric salt rocks. Through laboratory uniaxial and triaxial compression experiments on rock salt (halite), interlayers
(anhydrite) and bedded composite specimens (anhydritehalite and mudstonehalite), differences in mechanical properties of the various
lithologies are explored. In the composite specimens, the weakest or the most deformable component governs the behavior. Also, the
properties of bedded composite lithology specimens tend to be in between the property ranges of the pure lithologies. The elastic
modulus of the bedded salt rock increases from 5.3 to 24.1 GPa with an increase in the conning stress from 0 to 15 MPa, with some
evidence of sample damage. The ductile transition for halite at the strain rates used is at about s310 MPa.
With increasing s3, the anhydritehalite composite lithology deformation showed strain hardening and a strong trend to ductile
behavior as the halite bands tended to dominate the behavior. Strain incompatibility effects exist along interfaces between creeping and
non-creeping phases in anhydritehalite composite lithologies. Mudstonehalite rocks tended to be extremely weak, compared with all
other specimens.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bedded salt rock; Anhydrite; Mudstone; Halite; Mechanical properties; Salt cavity storage; Rock mechanics

1. Introduction sealing characteristics and rheological response of salt rock

Decades ago, the study of the mechanical behavior of
salt was driven by the need to design (deep) salt mines and
to maintain their stability. The mechanical properties of
salt rocks (evaporites with halide components) have been a
major focus of study ever since. Later, storage applications
come into play for oil and gas underground storage as well
as for other uids and solid wastes such as naturally
occurring radioactive wastes and oileld wastes in the USA
and Canada [115]. More recently, work has even been
carried out on the possibility of using salt caverns for semi-
permanent CO2 storage because of the excellent long-term
Corresponding author. at Mining Technology Institute, Taiyuan
University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China.
Tel.: +86 351 6014865; fax: +86 351 6014865.
E-mail address: master_lwg@hotmail.com (W. Liang).
under stress [1618].
Regardless of the primary purpose of a salt storage
facility, there is value in understanding the basic rock
mechanics properties of the salt rocks. The geomechanical
properties of salt rocks and salt deposits vary greatly
because of different origins, mineralogical components,
lithostratigraphic disposition, texture and diagenetic his-
tory (e.g. recrystallization), tectonic history and so on. To
improve facility safety and design, there is an incentive to
test various materials and better understand their roles in
cavern response, despite difculties such as representative-
ness, sampling damage, extreme heterogeneity in the
interbeds, strong anisotropy and so on.
Thick homogeneous rock salt deposits without interbeds
are not common, and areas of extensional strain diapirism
are limited (e.g. USA Gulf Coast, offshore Nova
Scotia, North Sea Graben and Northwest Germany Basin,

1365-1609/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2006.09.007
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W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411
Pre-Caspian Basin in Kazakhstan). Because the advantage
of salt storage facilities is related to their proximity to the
user (or waste generator), it is often necessary to consider
facility establishment in bedded salts with numerous
interbeds (anhydrite, shale, salty mudstones, carbonates,
etc.), zones of chaotic salt (with heterogeneous intercrystal-
line clay), zones of closely interbedded salt shale and so on.
Because substantial vertical-direction inhomogeneities are
more characteristic of bedded salt rock than diapiric salt,
the mechanical properties of bedded salt deposits are
different from those of the almost pure rock salt (NaCl)
in many diapirs. Thus, the design process and the operation
of a bedded salt storage facility must address the existence
of vertically different beds of materials that generally can
be assumed to be horizontal in aspect. Furthermore, these
differences arise at various scales ranging from the crystal
scale (millimetric) to the vertical scale of the entire deposit
(100 m).
Many experimental investigations on mechanical proper-
ties, especially creep properties, of pure halite have been
carried out. Some of those we have been involved with
include [14,1015]. Data on mechanical properties of the
impure, composite layered or non-salt strata in bedded
deposits are far less common than data on pure salt. Here,
we present uniaxial and conned triaxial compressive test
data for bedded salt rock specimens. We use the term salt
rock to refer to any lithotype found in a salt rock
sequence, whereas we use the term halite or, sometimes,
rock salt to specically refer, in this article, to a bed or
specimen of halite (NaCl).
2. Experimental methodology
To investigate the mechanical properties of a bedded salt
rock sequence and to explore differences from those of
single lithology specimens such as pure rock salt (NaCl) or
anhydrite (CaSO4), a set of 23 specimens was prepared
from core samples from Yingcheng salt deposit located
5001000 m underground in Hubei Province, China. Speci-
mens are classied into three lithotypes: rock salt (halite)
samples, anhydrite interlayer samples and bedded compo-
site samples. The rst two categories are pure lithotypes,
and the last category is a mixed lithotype with horizontal
beds of either anhydrite or mudstone alternating with
halite in the specimens, hence anhydritehalite and
mudstonehalite composite categories.
A limited amount of core was available, and care was
taken to select and preserve specimens suitable for testing.
Prepared specimen aspect ratios were as close to 2:1 (or
slightly greater) as feasible, with a diameter of 90 mm.
Uniaxial and conned compression experiments with
different conning stresses (s3 5, 10 and 15 MPa) were
carried out using a XTR01 mechanical frame with
electrical and hydraulic servo-control systems. During
triaxial compression tests, to ensure that the specimen
was under uniform hydrostatic stresses before the axial
stress was imposed, sr and sa values were simultaneously
401
gradually increased to the pre-established s3 values, then
axial loading imposed at a constant strain rate
(5  105 s1) until the axial load dropped and the speci-
men was irrevocably damaged. This strain rate is rapid
compared with the strain rates experienced during the
running of a storage facility, as the intent was to explore
short-term behavior such as might be encountered, for
example, in a case of rapid pressure drawdown in a cavern,
or even during the dissolution phase.
Loads and deformations were recorded throughout the
tests. Lateral strains were determined from radial deforma-
tions taken in two normal directions (i.e. along two
perpendicular diameters) at the midpoint of the specimen.
Being able to measure diametrical deformations at only
two locations is an equipment limitation that has interest-
ing consequences when testing composite layered rocks
with halite layers. At a given value of s3 and strain rate,
halite may behave viscoplastically, while strong adjacent
interlayers behave in a brittle manner. Ideally, in a
specimen of variable lithology along the axis, the local
distribution of axial and radial strains should be gathered
along the entire length or at least the central 60% to gain
insight into relative deformability and interlayer radial
strain concentration. This is technically highly challenging,
and we hope to include this in the future; nevertheless,
midpoint diametrical deformations can still be employed to
illustrate mechanical differences among lithologies for
different specimens. Specimen data are listed in Table 1.
3. Uniaxial compression
Uniaxial compression tests were carried out on six
specimens, two for each lithotype. As shown in Table 1,
specimens 162-23-1 and 162-23-2 are pure anhydrite
interlayers, specimens 116-24 and 117-4 are essentially pure
halite and specimens 128-15 and 140-21-1 are bedded
composite specimens of rock salt and anhydrite together.
The test results are shown in Table 2.
We note that the anhydrite interlayers are weak, UCS
24 MPa, compared with massive, zero-porosity anhydrite
data reported in the literature (up to 100 MPa) [19]. The
strength of rock salt specimens is 20 and 17 MPa in the
literature [19], the UCS of pure salt, generally from diapirs
and from bedded strata, is usually reported to be in the
range of 1532 MPa. The strength of the halite specimens is
less than the anhydrite interlayers, and the strength of the
anhydritehalite composite lithotype is intermediate; how-
ever, because of the small number of specimens and the
close nature of these data, specic conclusions cannot be
drawn except to say that the UCS strengths of the three
lithotypes are not signicantly different. These data could
be compared with data for many other materials such as
glauberite 49 MPa, thenardite 20 MPa and so on [20].
The strain-to-failure for the anhydrite interlayer speci-
mens is much lower than for the other two lithotypes,
0.15% compared with 0.50%. The average correspond-
ing Youngs modulus for the anhydrite interlayers is about
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402 W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411

Table 1
Test specimen description

Classication Specimen Length (mm) Diameter (mm) Lithology Conning conditions

Interlayer specimens 163-23-1 227.1 90 Anhydrite Uniaxial

(one mineralogy) 163-23-2 234.0 89.5 Anhydrite Uniaxial
171-26-2 192.8 90.0 Anhydrite 5 MPa (s3 stress)
171-26-3 193.0 90.0 Anhydrite 10 MPa (s3 stress)
169-12 192.0 89.8 Anhydrite 15 MPa (s3 stress)
Rock salt specimens 116-24 174.0 88.1 Halite Uniaxial
(one mineralogy) 117-4 205.5 84.5 Halite Uniaxial
115-25 233.4 87.4 Halite 5 MPa (s3 stress)
129-10 234.8 87.1 Halite 10 MPa (s3 stress)
110-31 232.2 87.0 Halite 15 MPa (s3 stress)
Bedded composite 128-15 218.0 81.7 Halite intersected by anhydrite Uniaxial
specimens (mixed 140-21-1 195.0 88.6 Halite intersected by anhydrite Uniaxial
lithotypes) 107-5 178.0 88.3 Halite intersected by anhydrite 5 MPa (s3 stress)
149-21 193.4 85.8 Halite intersected by mudstone 10 MPa (s3 stress)
121-18-1 166.6 88.5 Halite intersected by anhydrite 10 MPa (s3 stress)
137-15 232.0 88.5 Halite intersected by mudstone 10 MPa (s3 stress)
127-7 229.5 88.1 Halite intersected by mudstone 15 MPa (s3 stress)
128-21 207.0 86.3 Halite intersected by anhydrite 15 MPa (s3 stress)

Table 2
UCS results

Specimen Lithology Peak stress, UCS Axial strain at Elastic modulus Poissons ratio
(MPa) rupture (%) (GPa)

116-24 Rock salt 20.27 0.54 4.4 0.31

117-4 Rock salt 17.06 0.52 5.9 0.31
163-23-1 Anhydrite 23.72 0.11 20.9 0.20
163-23-2 Anhydrite 24.11 0.16 22.6 0.27
128-15 Bedded rock salt inserted with 23.29 0.47 7.6 0.16
anhydrite
140-21-1 Bedded rock salt inserted with 17.29 0.52 5.3 0.30
anhydrite

four times greater than that for the other two lithotypes as
well, 22 GPa compared with a mean of 5.8 GPa.
In general, it appears that in all of these properties, the
composite lithotype properties were consistently some-
where between those of the end members (pure salt and
anhydrite), despite the limitations of the testing and the
small number of specimens. This is a logical, perhaps
obvious conclusion for the properties collected under
unconned conditions, and it would also seem to be logical
to extrapolate this conclusion somewhat, suggesting that
the mechanical properties are dependent on the amount of
each end member, with specimen properties approaching
those of the end members as the proportion of that end
member increases. However, it would be too strong a
conclusion, based on limited data at this time, to suggest
that this relationship should be linear, or follow any other
systematic approximation.
The probability of a greater relative inuence of the
weakest component (generally assumed to be rock salt with
a lower stiffness, strength and a higher strain-to-failure) on
the macroscopic behavior of mixed specimens must not be
ignored, and this effect will not be the same for all
properties. In other words, a relatively modest proportion
of halite, such as 1020%, may have a much greater effect
on the strength and the Youngs modulus, but far less on
the Poissons ratio and so on. Given that pure rock salt is
at least four times as deformable as the anhydrite under
unconned conditions, it must have a great inuence on the
deformability, based simply on a mixture theory assump-
tion.
Differences in failure modes in UCS testing were
observed. For the two pure lithotypes, despite the
differences in strain-to-failure, the failure modes were both
due to the development of axial extensional fractures
(columnar disaggregation preceding rupture). For the
mixed lithology specimens, the failure mode is far more
complex, as one or the other lithology may dominate the
behavior. Two typical examples are shown as specimens
128-15 and 140-21-1 in Fig. 1, and the UCS se curves are
shown in Fig. 2. In specimen 128-15, the component of
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W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411 403

Fig. 1. Unaxial compression specimens of bedded composite salt rocks (A) saltanhydritesalt composite specimen 140-21-1 before and after uniaxial
compression test and (B) saltanhydritesalt composite specimen 128-15 before and after uniaxial compression test.

anhydrite lies in the middle part of the column, whereas in
specimen 140-21-1, the middle part is the rock salt
component. These two different physical constitutions
(textures) of the anhydritehalite composite lithology led
to different mechanical responses to loading. For example,
for specimen 128-15, the UCS of 23 MPa is substantially
higher than 17 MPa for specimen 140-21-1, and we believe
that this can be ascribed to the presence of anhydrite with a
high tensile strength in the central part of the specimen. On
the other hand, the middle part of specimen 140-21-1 is
rock salt, which is weaker, and also tends to give a much
higher lateral deformability in the midpoint as it is loaded
(Poissons ratio of 0.30 compared with 0.16).
4. Triaxial compression
For the three lithotypes, conning stresses of 5, 10 and
15 MPa were used for the triaxial tests. Of course, the issue
of specimen set homogeneity arises in this work because it
is essentially impossible to achieve consistency of fabric,
relative content and mineral disposition in the mixed
lithotype. In the case of a composite lithotype, imagine the
different behavior a 90-mm-diameter specimen might show
if the anhydrite and halite were in alternating 10 mm layers
or in alternating 50 mm layers. One can only speculate as to
how many tests would have to be done before one could
arrive at statistically signicant relationships at a high
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404 W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411

163-23-1 Table 3
30 128-15 Test results: different lithologies, different conning stress
163-23-2
25 116-24 Conning Rock salt Anhydrite Anhydritehalite
117-4
stress specimens specimens specimens
Stress/ MPa

20 (MPa)
140-21-1 Peak Axial Peak Axial Peak Axial
15 stress strain stress strain stress strain
(MPa) (%) (MPa) (%) (MPa) (%)
10

5 5 42.9 2.27 59.8 0.21 50.3 1.86

10 70.7 10.6 63.2 0.56 65.9 0.75
0 15 71.6 10.4 73.5 0.37 81.2 3.21
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Strain/ %

Fig. 2. Uniaxial compression stressstrain curves. The two low- strain-to-
failure curves are the anhydrite sample.
condence level, given the variability in the various textural
factors, compounded by issues such as sample disturbance.
Nevertheless, we report the tests carried out.
4.1. The mechanical behavior of different lithotypes
Comparing data at the same conning stress, Table 3
shows that the peak triaxial strength of the anhydrite
halite composite lithology specimens is generally found to
be between that of the components when the conning
stress is low (5 and 10 MPa). At a conning stress of
15 MPa, the peak strength of the composite-bedded speci-
men approaches and even somewhat surpasses that of its
components.
The axial strain-to-failure recorded for composite-
bedded specimens is clearly some aggregate of the
deformation of the component materials. Anhydrite, being
a brittle-elastic rock at these conning stresses and
temperatures, shows strains-to-failure less than 1%
throughout the range s3 015 MPa, whereas for the
higher conning stresses the rock salt displays great ductile
plasticity, requiring strains in excess of 10% to achieve
strain-weakening yield. Again, although the detailed
distribution of the axial strain among the component
layers along the axis of the specimen is not known, if the
rock salt phase is dominant, the strain-to-failure is far
greater than if the anhydrite phase is dominant.
4.2. The effect of s3 on mechanical behavior
For the same lithotype, as shown in Table 3, the peak
strength expectedly increases with s3 because the frictional
strength component increases with normal stress in all
elastic rocks or rocks that display MohrCoulomb type
strength, and we note that halite at lower conning stresses
and rapid strain rates (44  105 s1) behaves as a Mohr-
Coulomb material. Fully ductile materials such as lead or
rock salt under extremely high s3 (420 MPa) behave as
purely plastic materials. The brittle-to-ductile transition for
the halite specimens under rapid loading (45  105 s1)
can be noted in the data; this transition is a change from
brittle disaggregation (debonding) of the crystalline fabric
to viscoplastic deformation within crystals and along
crystal boundaries. Whereas there is a signicant strength
increment between values of s3 0, 5 and 10 MPa, and the
strength at 15 MPa is about the same. Even within the
range of values expected for rocks with natural variations,
this is a large change in behavior, and it suggests that the
brittleductile transition for this rock salt lies around s3
10 MPa.
No similar transition in the strength or the strain-to-
failure is seen in the other lithotypes, and indeed it would
not be expected at these values of s3 for anhydrite. In
the bedded composite rocks, one may argue that an
increase to a 3.2% strain-to-failure at 15 MPa is an
evidence of proximity to the brittleductile transition, but
the strength data do not corroborate this. It is difcult to
say what the effect on the brittleductile transition is for
mixed component rocks, but we speculate that even a
moderate amount of anhydrite layering will inhibit the
apparent transition to fully plastic deformation as s3
increases because the anhydrite layers will inhibit or
constrain the plastic extrusion of the salt, acting as a
reinforcing layer.
Figs. 38 are the complete se curves for different
specimens under the different conning stresses.
4.3. MohrCoulomb strength criterion
With the acquired stress data, linear MohrCoulomb
strength equations were obtained for the three lithotypes.
Using two signicant digits, the regression equations are:
 For the rock salt: tf 4.1+sn tan(311) Mpa.
 For the anhydrite: tf 6.2+sn tan(291) Mpa.
 For the bedded salt rocks: tf 4.7+sn tan(311) Mpa.
The apparent cohesion for the composite rocks lies
between the apparent cohesions for the halite and
anhydrite, although it is much closer to the value for the
halite, and the friction angles are roughly similar (at these
strain rates). One may, of course, criticize the suitability of
linear regression to stipulate a yield criterion, given that
there appears to be the onset of a brittleductile transition
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W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411 405

171-26-2 70
60
107-5
60
50
Deviatoric stress/MPa

Deviatoric stress/MPa
115-25
50
40
40 10 MPa confined
30
30
20 15 MPaconfined
20
10 5 MPaconfined
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 0
Axial strain / % 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Axial strain / %
Fig. 3. Stressstrain curves, different lithologies at s3 5 MPa. Left curve
is the anhydrite sample. Fig. 6. Halite (rock salt) stressstrain curves under different s3.

121-18-1 70
70
171-26-3 60
60
Deviatoric stress / MPa

Deviatoric stress / MPa

50 50
129-10
40 40
15 MPa confined
30
30
20 10 MPa confined
20
10
5 MPa confined
0 10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Axial strain / % 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Fig. 4. Stressstrain curves, different lithologies at s3 10 MPa. Right Axial strain / %
curve is the halite sample and the other two are anhydrite and composite
anhydritehalite. Fig. 7. Anhydrite lithology stressstrain curves under different s3.

169-12
70 70
128-21
60 60
Deviatoric stress/MPa

Deviatoric stress/ MPa

50 50
110-31
40 40
10 MPaconfined
30
30
20 5 MPa confined
20
10 15 MPa confined
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Axial strain / %
Axial strain / %
Fig. 5. Stressstrain curves, different lithologies at s3 15 MPa. Left
curveanhydrite; right curvehalite and central curvecomposite of Fig. 8. Bedded composite (anhydrite-halite) sample stressstrain curves
anhydrite and halite. under different s3.

in the rock salt at about s3 10 MPa, and given that yield coefcients. The MC yield criteria regression curves are
criteria for rocks tend to be curvilinear in any case. shown in Figs. 911.
Nevertheless, with only four data points, it is a reasonable One may access the literature for other data for
rst approximation and it allows comparison of the similar rocks (though few data on mixed-component
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406 W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411

35 Table 4. The elastic modulus is taken as the gradient of the

= 4.1 + ntg31.1
30 2
R = 0.9725
linear part of the stressstrain curve of each specimen
25 (approximately at the half-way point toward peak-shearing
resistance), and the Poissons ratio is taken to be the
/MPa

20
ratio of lateral strain to axial strain for the section bet-
15
ween 50% and 60% of the peak strength of the speci-
10
men. This method of measuring Youngs modulus and
5 Poissons ratio includes all effects of dilatancy and damage
0 accumulation.
0 20 40 60
From Table 4, we note that Youngs modulus and
n / MPa
Poissons ratio of all the lithotypes undergo substantial
Fig. 9. MC strength criterion for rock salt (halite) specimens. changes when the conning stresses are changed from 0 to
5 MPa, and thereafter they change far less for higher
conning stresses (10 and 15 MPa). Furthermore, in the
40 case of salt and the composite lithotype, Poissons ratio
= 6.2 + n tg29.2 behaves somewhat strangely.
2
R = 0.9376
30 Despite data scatter at higher conning stresses, we
interpret the increase in Youngs modulus between 0 and
/ MPa

20 5 MPa as evidence of some damage during coring and

specimen preparation. These are relatively aggressive
10 sampling and preparation processes, and they give rise to
intergranular damage and the opening of aws. In
0 unconned compression tests, these aws deform and close
0 20 40 60 along with the rest of the matrix, leading to two effects: a
n / MPa lower stiffness because of their contribution to the strain
and a lower Poissons ratio because any crack that is
Fig. 10. MC strength criterion for anhydrite specimens.
aligned in such an orientation to the axial stress as to close
will contribute almost nothing to the lateral strain. It is well
40 = 4.7 +nt g31.2
known, for example, that microssured hard rocks display
R2 = 0.9913 exceptionally low values of Poissons ratio, particularly
30 under low or zero-conning stress [21].
For the halite specimens, the low stiffness in the UCS
/ MPa

20 test is clearly the result of open intergranular microssures.

10
0 positive dilation during the test. This means that irrever-
0 20
n / MPa
Fig. 11. MC strength criterion for bedded composite rocks, anhydrite-
halite.
anhydritehalite exist); for further comparisons, we here
report a few values for unusual salt rock compositions
mentioned above that we have tested in the past [20]. Note
the higher cohesion and the lower friction angles,
compared with the data in this article.
 Thenardite: tf 7.7+sn tan(211) Mpa.
 Glauberite: tf 8.3+sn tan(181) Mpa.
4.4. The effect of s3 on mechanical parameters
The Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio of the
specimens measured during the experiments are listed in
At higher conning stresses, the stiffness is more consistent
because these are closed, but a Poissons ratio greater than
0.5 shows that even at 5060% of peak strength, there is
40 60 sible textural damage of a dilatant nature (microcrack
generation and opening) is taking place, and these
Poissons ratios are not representative of classical elastic
deformation (we call them nominal Poissons ratios). The
implication is that to obtain a true elastic estimate of the
deformation properties of rock salt within the ground,
under in situ conditions, it may be best to conduct bulk
modulus tests only (no shear stress) after the salt specimens
have been annealed under a high conning stress to reverse
some of the damage [4].
For anhydrite interlayers, the mechanical parameters do
not seem to follow a pattern with conning stress change,
and we attribute this to a substantial heterogeneity
(variability) in the specimens tested (an unfortunate
consequence of limited core availability). As expected for
this elastic lithotype, the Poissons ratio measured
remains below 0.45, although there is considerable scatter
(the one test at 5 MPa conning stress appears to be
anomalous, and if it is eliminated, the entire data set
appears more consistent).
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W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411 407

Table 4
Elastic parameters of specimens at different stresses

Conning stress Rock salt specimens Anhydrite specimens Anhydritehalite composite

(Mpa)
Youngs modulus Poissons ratio Youngs modulus Poissons ratio Youngs modulus Poissons ratio
(GPa) (GPa) (Gpa)

0 4.45.9 0.31 20.922.6 0.200.27 5.37.6 0.160.30

5 20.4 0.59 61.8 0.43 10.3 0.21
10 20.8 0.59 17.3 0.15 19.6 0.12
15 25.2 0.44 32.7 0.29 24.1 0.69
 Measured values are greater than elastic domain Poissons ratio values (0.5 maximum). These reect internal damage and dilation as well as an
additional component of viscoplastic strain in the halite zones, and the numbers are to be regarded as nominal Poissons ratio.

For the bedded composite specimens, Youngs modulus 60

clearly increases with conning stress, but less so for each
increment (the largest effect is between 0 and 5 MPa), as we 50

Deviatoric stress / MPa

would expect for a material with a large number of 40 128-18-1
microaws and interfaces. The Poissons ratio behavior is
hard to explain, although the value above 0.5 for the high- 30 137-15
stress tests is, as for the case of the rock salt tests,
attributable to dilation taking place in the halite parts of 20 149-21
the composite rock. In fact, because of the limited
10
capability for lateral strain measurements, the measure-
ment location was in a pure salt layer; therefore, the 0
Poissons ratio value is not representative of the bulk 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 2.8
specimen, whereas the Youngs modulus value is an axial Strain / %
average. This is the case for the Poissons ratio measure-
Fig. 12. Stressstrain curves, bedded salt with different interlayers,
ments for all the specimens, and it shows the limitations of s3 10 MPa. The two lowest curves are mudstonehalite and the upper
testing to determine the bulk properties of heterogeneous one is anhydritehalite.
specimens.
Many questions arise as to what test procedures and
measurements are needed to reasonably characterize the 70
behavior of composite rocks. To further complicate 60
Deviatoric stress / MPa

matters, we now report a few mudstonehalite composite-

bedded specimen tests; unfortunately, there were no pure 50
specimens of the mudstone available for comparison. 40

4.5. The interlayer influence on the mechanical behavior 30

128-21
20 127-7
Referring back to Table 1, there are three specimens in
10
the bedded rock category that contained mudstone
interlayers along with halite (specimens 149-21, 137-15, 0
127-7). We judged that there was insufcient information 0 1 2 3 4
to warrant treating the data the same as for the other Strain / %
materials, but some results are reported here for compar- Fig. 13. Stressstrain curves, bedded salt with different interlayers,
ison. s3 15 MPa. Lower curve with mudstone interlayers and upper curve
Composite rocks with mudstone interlayering are weaker with anhydrite interlayers.
than pure rock salt and composite rocks with anhydrite/
halite interlayering. For specimens 149-21 and 137-15
under s3 of 10 MPa, peak strengths of 16.6 and 24.9 MPa From the differences in the peak strength we can
were noted (Fig. 12), while the strength of the three other conclude that the properties of the non-salt component of
groups was about 6070 MPa at s3 10 MPa (Table 3). interbedded salt rocks greatly inuence the bulk (macro-
For specimen 127-7 at s3 15 MPa, the peak strength was scopic) properties of the bedded salt rock at a scale of
only 25.9 MPa (Fig. 13), relatively even lower than the meters and more. The strength of the bedded salt rock with
other two mudstonehalite composite specimens. anhydrite layers interspersed within the halite is far higher
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
408 W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411

than specimens where mudstone is the non-salt interbed-
ding phase.
4.6. Deformation and failure mechanisms
As implied earlier, the deformation patterns and failure
mechanisms for different specimens are different. For the
halite specimens (rock salt), the failure mode is bulk
disaggregation by tensile rupture at crystal interfaces when
s3 is low (5 MPa), becoming more and more ductileplastic
at higher conning stresses. This is seen in the deformation
curves on Fig. 6, and a transition from axial extension
cracking and disaggregation failure to general barreling
preceding shear plane development is obvious as s3 is
increased. (Of course, such high strain rates (3  105 s1)
are never observed in nature in salt caverns that are
appropriately designed, and in a cavern design, the viscoe-
lastic properties of the halite are of rst-order importance,
rather than the high strain-rate elastoplastic response.)
For the anhydrite lithotype, the failure of the specimen
under triaxial compression (s3X5 MPa) appears to be a
modied shear failure with an uneven angle between the
normal to the shear plane and the axis of the cylinder of
30501 (the shear plane angle is modied by the natural
bedding and heterogeneity in the specimen). The deforma-
tion of the specimen demonstrated a strain-hardening trend
with increasing s3, as shown in Fig. 7.
For the bedded composite rocks, the deformation and
failure mechanisms are complicated. With s3 increase, the
deformation of the specimens demonstrated strain hard-
ening and a trend toward more ductile deformation and
failure. However, observing the failure surface of the
specimens, we found that the failure of the specimens was
mainly from a composite tensile/shear failure of the
interlayered rock. There clearly existed vertical or diagonal
ssures in the hard interlayer part, whereas at higher
conning stresses the halite zones barreled and showed far
less visible damage (Fig. 14).
We conclude that there exists great complexity in the
deformation and failure behavior of rocks that have
interlayers of halite and other non-salt lithotypes such as
anhydrite and mudstone. At signicant conning stresses,
s3410 MPa in our case, the halite zones expand laterally in
a viscoplastic mode (demonstrated by the high nominal
Poissons ratio), whereas the adjacent non-salt beds
experience shearing and the development of tensile vertical
cracks, as the rock is carried outward by the large lateral
deformations in the halite.
5. Applications in engineering
These observations on failure mode are not trivial in the
context of a salt cavern design. There is a need to sustain
pressure integrity of the cavern and mechanical integrity of

Fig. 14. Specimens before and after conned compression tests (A) saltanhydritesalt composite specimen 107-5 before and after conned compression
test (s3 5 MPa), (B) saltmudstonesaltmudstonesalt composite specimen 127-7 before and after conned compression test (s3 15 MPa) and (C)
saltanhydrite composite specimen 128-21 before and after conned compression test (s3 15 MPa).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411
the casing to operate the cavern successfully. There must be
some condence that the lowest storage pressure encoun-
tered during the cyclic changes will not lead to substantial
or progressive failure of the non-salt interlayers within the
bedded sequence of the bedded salt. This concern must be
combined with the analysis of volumetric changes asso-
ciated with the creep of the halite surrounding the cavern
so as to assure that there are no excessive losses of storage
volume through high creep rates at low storage pressures.
Better understanding of strain incompatibility in composite
bedded rocks should improve our assessment of cavern
response, and perhaps even lead to changes in the designed
vertical positioning of such a cavern in a thick sequence,
depending on the location of the mixed lithotype assem-
blages.
From experiments, we can infer the deformation and
possible failure mode of a bedded salt cavity storage facility
to some degree although the deformation patterns and
failure features are exceedingly complex. Under a constant
storage pressure (pc) in a cavern, the pressure is less than
the overburden stress (sv), but within the halite beds at a
large distance from the wall, the stress is uniform
(isotropic, sv sh) and equal to the vertical stress sv;
hence, there is always a deviatoric stress within the storage
cavern wall for some distance, as long as pcosv. This leads
to the continued deformation of the bedded salt rock
around the storage facility, and the deformation rates will
be the largest when the difference svpc is the greatest.
Furthermore, because the dependency of creep rate on
deviatoric stress is a high-order function (at least an
exponent of 3, [22]), the closure rate and wall deformations
are not linear with respect to svpc.
A critical operational parameter is the minimum value of
pc. Because the maximum pc value is usually kept far below
sv, perhaps 7585% of sv, there is little danger of rock
damage at high storage pressures, and no danger of
hydraulic fracture, provided that the rocks in the cavern
roof retain pressure integrity. This latter concern is, of
course, why a salt barrier in the top of a cavern is used, and
why one must always be concerned as to its integrity,
especially if it is made up largely of composite bedded
rocks where strain incompatibility could generate security
issues.
Though laboratory testing is vital, because of the
extreme complexity of failure and deformation processes
in the interlayered strata typical of bedded salt deposits, it
is necessary to learn from experience and to take
measurements in situ. For example, a loss of storage
integrity resulted from excessive salt creep in the
Eminence Dome natural gas storage facility in Mississippi,
USA in April 1972. A gas leak and personnel evacuation
resulting from casing failure in the Napoleonville natural
gas storage facility in Louisiana, USA, took place in
December 2003. There appears to have been at least 10
serious integrity impairment events involving salt cavern
storage facilities since 1972. In light of this clear evidence
that we cannot make perfect predictions in salt cavern
409
storage, even in excellent salt dome conditions, it appears
that a conservative approach including careful monitoring
is warranted. In addition to testing and numerical
simulations needed to assess cavern closure, we must
incorporate continuous pressure monitoring, mass (vo-
lume) balance analyses and deformation monitoring. Sur-
face deformation measurements are strongly recommended
using survey methods or satellite radar interferometric
measurements to compute overall volume changes. If
possible, sonar is used if the cavern remains liquid lled
(not the case in gas storage). Other monitoring schemes
such as microseismic monitoring should be considered in
cases where a conservative design is not possible, or where
there are signicant nancial and safety issues arising from
a possible impairment of integrity (within a heavily
populated area, for example). In particular, the mixed
lithotypes studied here would be far more prone to the
emission of low-energy microseismic bursts during defor-
mation than the pure halite, which tends to respond to
deviatoric stress with general creep distortion without
microseismicity. Emissions can be used to develop quanti-
tative and semi-quantitative assessments over time, provid-
ing some degree of risk management.
Also, we suggest that attempts to incorporate more
carefully the behavior of interbeds and composite bedded
layers into numerical simulation efforts be examined,
particularly with respect to the integrity of the roof of
bedded salt rock caverns. Difculty in choosing mechanical
properties for these zones is tremendous, as we have shown
here, but there are at least some data emerging, and
hopefully these will increase in the future.
6. Conclusions
Bedded salt deposits with some occurrence of inter-
layered composite salt rocks are the most common of the
major types of salt rock occurrences (the other two types
are tectonically thickened salt and diapiric salt, sometimes
considered to be almost pure salt), but are relatively less
well studied compared with those pure salt specimens.
Uniaxial and triaxial compressive experiments on rock salt,
anhydrite interlayers and composite bedded salt rocks
(anhydritehalite and mudstonehalite) were carried out
and the results were examined carefully.
In the case of the anhydritehalite composite rocks, it is
generally found that the properties are intermediate
between the end members, but the specic relationship is
too complex to be delineated by a limited test series
because of issues such as the texture and geometry of the
interbedding. The component possessing the weakest and
the most deformable characteristics seems to dominate the
response of the composite specimens, including the
mudstonehalite specimens. Halite begins to act viscoplas-
tically at about s3 10 MPa, and this has a profound effect
on the behavior of composite specimens. Furthermore, in
the composite specimens, mudstone layers seem to have a
far greater weakening effect, compared with anhydrite
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410 W. Liang et al. / International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 44 (2007) 400411
layers. In the anhydritehalite specimens, the discrepancy
between the strengths of the bedded composite specimen
and the constitutive component specimens (pure halite
and anhydrite specimens) becomes less as the conned
stress is increased.
In the experimental work, we noted the effect of
conning stress on Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio.
These effects were attributed to sampling damage for some
of the changes in stiffness response with s3, particularly at
the lower- conning stress values, and data reporting the
nominal Poissons ratio (often 40.5) were attributed to the
viscoplastic and dilatant behavior of halite at low stresses
and high strain rates.
Above all, it is distressingly clear that the deformation
and failure behavior of bedded salt rocks is highly complex
and will not be fully claried even by very large numbers of
tests. Even within one lithotype, there is a great deal of
heterogeneity observed in the data as well as scatter arising
from various sources (such as the location of the lateral
strain ratio measurements). With s3 increase, the deforma-
tion of the specimens demonstrated strain hardening and a
trend toward greater ductility as long as halite was present.
The appearance of the failed specimens demonstrated
that the interface of the two different lithologies is the
dominant location of strain-weakening phenomena in the
bedded composite materials. In the elastic layers of the
composite specimens, it was clear that vertical tensile
cracks developed in response to the viscoplastic extrusion
of the halite layers in conditions of elevated s3. Failure
(strain-weakening yield) is a complex combination of three
modes: tensile fracture, shear displacement and general
viscoplastic dilatant distortion (halite).
For testing of composite materials in triaxial compres-
sion, something that the discipline has carefully avoided, it
is necessary to keep in mind issues of specimen size,
representativeness of the specimens available, rock hetero-
geneity at many scale lengths, load direction with respect to
bedding as cores (and hence specimens) are usually vertical
and normal to bedding, test methodologies such as lateral
strain-proling measurements and so on. The use of the
data in practice is not trivial and to our knowledge the
incorporation of geomechanical properties of composite-
layered rock zones has also been carefully avoided.
Whereas there is no obvious answer to these lacunae, we
believe that through further testing and monitoring in situ,
better and more rational design approaches will evolve,
even if a substantial empirical component remains with
respect to these difcult composite and interlayered
materials.
The experiments in this paper were to determine uniaxial
and triaxial mechanical properties of bedded salt rock
under rapid strain rates (45  105 s1) for the Yingcheng
salt deposit, China. Some viscous characteristics of the salt
under high deviatoric stresses have been demonstrated in
the experiments, and an ongoing experimental program
continues to explore the rheological properties of this salt
deposit to help in the design and operational integrity
sustenance of storage facilities that will be constructed in
the future.
Acknowledgments
This research has been nanced by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (no.50434050, 50304011) and
the Youth Science Foundation of Shanxi Province
(no.20041020), which are greatly appreciated.
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