The effect of roughness on healing and sealing of fracture in salt rock

This is a project funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council. In the terms of CO2 storage, waste disposal and compressed air energy storage, salt rocks can ensure fluid or gas containment, because of the favourable creep properties of halite (leading to healing and sealing), and the general low permeability. However, fractures or faults in caprock may have a great impact on the safety of these subsurface engineering operations. Therefore it is necessary to figure out the mechanism of fracture properties evolution in salt rocks during healing and sealing, which have a large impact on the physical and mechanical properties of fractures. This project consists out of an experimental part and a numerical part, aimed at investigating the effect of fluid on the salt rock fracture surface when loaded with a normal stress.