Mechanical Stability Evaluation of Water-sealed Type Underground Rock Cavern Using Tilt Response to Gas Pressure Change in Cavern

In addition to hydrological characterization of water-sealed type underground rock caverns, their mechanical stability is constantly monitored by measuring several properties, such as earthquake-induced vibration, strain, and tilt. Among them, tilt measurement is the most accurate monitoring method for rock deformation because of the tiltmeter's high resolution of 10-9 rad, which enables the detection of minute deformations caused by earth tide, rock responses to earthquake, change in atmospheric pressure, and artificial disturbance by operation. This study aimed to correctly extract these responses from long-term tilt data measured by a high precision tiltmeter at the Kushikino station and clarify the mechanism of tilt change as a result of deformation of rock mass. Tilt changes due to a small change in the gas phase pressure at the top of the rock cavern, approximately 10 kPa pressure fluctuation, were analyzed and discussed. The gradient response due to the gas pressure change was extracted from the measurement data by BAYTAP-G, and its magnitude was identified as 2 to 8 nrad, which was almost the same tilt response magnitude observed at an issuance of stored crude oil. This tilt response to the increase in tank gas pressure was numerically confirmed to originate from minute elastic deformation of rock masses, by using finite element method. Because fluctuation of the gas phase pressure can be continuously monitored, the effectiveness of tilt measurement was proved as a minute strain sensor for deformation of the water-sealed type underground rock cavern.