Mechanical Behavior and Air Tightness of Roadway Surrounding Rock Under High Internal Pressure

High-pressure air storage is an important part of a gas storage system. Abandoned coal mine roadways can provide a large number of air storage spaces. The geological conditions of coal mines in different areas vary, such as depth, surrounding rock grade, in situ stress state, and surrounding rock permeability, which directly affect the mechanical behavior and air tightness of roadway surrounding rock under high internal pressure. Therefore, the suitable internal pressure must be selected for abandoned roadways with different geological conditions. In this study, the numerical simulation software FLAC3D was used to calculate the stress, deformation, plastic zone volume, and pore pressure of surrounding rock of an abandoned roadway under 5–10 MPa internal pressure. Results show that some differences exist in the suitable internal pressure of the abandoned roadway under different geological conditions. When the in situ stress state was σ_H > σ_h > σ_v or σ_H > σ_v > σ_h, the suitable internal pressure of grade I, II, and III surrounding rocks was 5–7 and 8–10 MPa at the depth greater than 200 and 300 m, respectively; the suitable internal pressure of grade IV and V surrounding rocks was 5–6, 7–9, and 10 MPa at the depth greater than 200, 300, and 400 m, respectively. When the in situ stress state was σ_v > σ_H > σ_h, the suitable internal pressure of grade I, II, III, IV, and V surrounding rocks was 5–7 and 8–10 MPa at the depth greater than 300 and 400 m, respectively. Surrounding rock permeability can be used to evaluate the air tightness of roadway surrounding rock under high-pressure air. The surrounding rock permeability that can meet the sealing requirements of compressed air energy storage (CAES) caverns is less than 1 × 10⁻¹⁴ m², which are low-permeability strata. Low-permeability hard rock should be selected as much as possible. The research results provide a theoretical basis for the determination of internal pressure and the sealing evaluation of an abandoned coal mine roadway used for gas storage cavern.