Heat of Fusion and Density of Solid Parahydrogen at Pressures to about 400 Atmospheres

Abstract

The great promise of hydrogen as a propellant has already been realized in rocket applications. Because of its excellent combustion characteristics and regenerative cooling capability, hydrogen is also being considered as a fuel in future air-breathing hypersonic vehicles. Hydrogen has several disadvantages which tend to offset, to a certain extent, its advantages. Two of its major disadvantages are its low boiling point and low density, which result in various vehicle design problems. For these reasons hydrogen may some day be stored, handled, transferred, and used as a mixture of solid and liquid (hydrogen slush). Hydrogen in the form of slush would reduce the losses due to evaporation and would increase the density.