The purpose of the modelling is to assess whether there is any danger of oil leaking out of the cavern into the groundwater.

The visualisation shows the fracture network and the porous medium surrounding the cavern as computed by CONNECTFLOW. The fracture network is constructed from networks of rectangular planar fractures with physical characteristics sampled from statistical distributions that characterise a number of distinct fracture sets. Each set is described by a fracture centre density, an orientation distribution, a distribution of side lengths, and a description of fracture transmissivity. The fractures are distributed in space by a Poisson point process to assign the fracture centres. Flow is restricted to this network.

This example is from a model of a cavern designed for storing oil. The cavern is approximately 150m below ground in a low permeability granite layer, which is modelled as a fractured medium. The cavern is approximately 30m high by several 100m in length. Oil is fed into the cavern from a pipeline, and removed from the cavern when needed. This facility is part of the Republic of Korea's oil distribution network.

The oil is prevented from leaking into the groundwater by a layer of grouting on the walls of the cavern, and by a water curtain system, consisting of an array of boreholes above the cavern, through which water is injected at pressure.