×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Using Fluid Mechanics for Geologic Salt Domes?

Using Fluid Mechanics for Geologic Salt Domes?

Using Fluid Mechanics for Geologic Salt Domes?

(OP)
I was recently presented with a problem concerning the migration of a salt formation in an area of Utah. After spending a little time looking at the given data, I decided it might be a problem that could be approached using fluid mechanics. The idea being that the salt formation, relatively speaking, is highly viscous and is free to respond to acting forces and deform appropriately. Essentially, I was hoping to treat the salt formation almost like the bladder of a water bed reacting to differential loading.
As far as the numbers are concerned, I have data sets that define X and Y coordinates and respective depths for various geological formations. These data points constitute the "tops" of the salt layer as well as layers above and below the salt. Along with these depths I am willing to make very broad and very general assumptions about the salt layer.
1.    The salt is incompressible unlike the layers above it, and consequently as the layers above do compress with further deposition, the salt will act as a buoyant body that reacts to differential loading.
2.    I would like to consider the salt as frictionless with respect to its upper and lower contacts due to its brittle nature (the salt is lying on what is essentially a sloped plain and so it is free to slide along that slope to achieve equilibrium).
3.    The salt's volume is a constant, as there is little evidence of dissolution.
4.    The underlying foundation of the salt has remained unchanged.
Anyway, where this leaves me is I can assume what the salt looked like at deposition and what it looks like now. I can find volumes and weights, and I am willing to apply appropriate generalizations and assumptions. From there I was wondering if it would be appropriate to use fluid mechanics to analyze the various forces acting upon the salt by the upper layers, and vice versa. I don't expect to get exact numbers, so much as a good idea about the general behavior of the salt with the final result being a good idea of where to look for areas of high stress and dynamic shifting. Ultimately, I hope to use this knowledge to locate probable regions of fracturing which I could then compare to current data of fracture locations and perhaps get correlation and maybe even forecasting.
I realize this is a mouth full for a forum but I thought it would be worth a try. Anyway, if anyone could give me an idea of the feasibility of perusing this problem and maybe even a few pointers in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking an interest and I look forward to others responses.
 

RE: Using Fluid Mechanics for Geologic Salt Domes?

this has been studied extensively by the industry.  There is a few places you can start look. The salt you see in pictures or in the labs/museums isn't anything like what salts is undergroud.  Salt is quite fluid and yet it can fracture, but the fractures will heal and the salt will flow again, all of course with the right temperatures and pressures.

True domal salt has vertually no lower limit, along the gulf coast they believe the mother salt is over 75,000 feet deep.

I suggest you read more on the salt and what its properties deep underground are.

RE: Using Fluid Mechanics for Geologic Salt Domes?

Use the mechanics of solids.  See also soil mechanics and/or geology.  The bulk modulus of elasticity describes the deformations you wish to study.

I suggest you post this question on the geologic engineering forum or one of the other civil engineering related forums dealing with geotechnical issues.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=222036&page=1

"If everything seems under control, you're just not moving fast enough."
- Mario Andretti- When asked about transient hydraulics
http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources