RCAIDE.Library.Attributes.Propellants.Liquid_Hydrogen

Liquid_Hydrogen#

class Liquid_Hydrogen(*args, **kwarg)[source]#

Bases: Propellant

A class representing liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel properties for aviation applications.

tag#

Identifier for the propellant (‘Liquid_H2’)

Type:: str

reactant#

Oxidizer used for combustion (‘O2’)

Type:: str

density#

Fuel density in kg/m³ (59.9)

Type:: float

specific_energy#

Specific energy content in J/kg (141.86e6)

Type:: float

energy_density#

Energy density in J/m³ (8491.0e6)

Type:: float

stoichiometric_fuel_to_air#

Stoichiometric fuel-to-air ratio (0.0291)

Type:: float

temperatures#

Critical temperatures

autoignitionfloat
Autoignition temperature in K (845.15)

Type:: Data

Notes

Liquid hydrogen represents a zero-carbon aviation fuel option with the highest specific energy of any fuel, but requires cryogenic storage at extremely low temperatures (-253°C).

Definitions

‘Specific Energy’

Energy content per unit mass, approximately 3 times higher than kerosene

‘Energy Density’

Energy content per unit volume, lower than conventional fuels due to low density

‘Stoichiometric Fuel-to-Air Ratio’

Ideal fuel-to-air mass ratio for complete combustion to H2O

Major Assumptions

Properties are for liquid hydrogen
No consideration of boil-off losses

References

[1] Roberts, K. (2008). ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF A HYPERSONIC SCRAMJET ENGINE WITH A STARTING MACH NUMBER OF 4.00 (thesis). UTA. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved December 30, 2024, from https://arc.uta.edu/publications/td_files/Kristen%20Roberts%20MS.pdf.

cryogen_properties(T, prop_name)[source]#

Return interpolated liquid hydrogen property value at a given temperature.

Parameters:

T (float or ndarray) – Temperature(s) in Kelvin at which the property is requested.
prop_name (str) –
Name of the property to retrieve from the hydrogen data file. Valid keys include:
- ”Temperature (K)”
- ”Pressure (MPa)”
- ”Density (kg/m3)”
- ”Volume (m3/kg)”
- ”Internal Energy (kJ/kg)”
- ”Enthalpy (kJ/kg)”
- ”Entropy (J/g*K)”
- ”Cv (J/g*K)”
- ”Cp (J/g*K)”
- ”Sound Spd. (m/s)”
- ”Joule-Thomson (K/MPa)”
- ”Viscosity (Pa*s)”
- ”Therm. Cond. (W/m*K)”
- ”Phase”

Returns:

prop_value – Interpolated property value(s) corresponding to the input temperature(s).

Return type:

float or ndarray

Notes

Property data is loaded from H2_properties.res using

load_hydrogen_properties(). * Linear interpolation is applied between tabulated values. * Extrapolation outside the data range is not supported (fill_value=None). * Phase information is categorical and may not be suitable for interpolation.

Source#

Internal RCAIDE resource file: H2_properties.res