Thermal expansion of ice based gas hydrates

This work aims at studying thermal expansion of ice Ih based gas hydrates that play important role in self-preservation effect of classical gas hydrates. Linear thermal expansion of ice Ih based hydrogen hydrates are calculated using a very effective statistical thermodynamic model of gas hydrates developed by the authors of this work. Molecular structures of all studied systems are obtained by MD simulations, and all parameters required by the model are obtained by using Quasiharmonic Lattice Dynamic approach. In accordance with our calculations, introduction of hydrogen into the system not only significantly affects the unit cell parameter of ice, but also increases linear thermal expansion and makes it comparable to the classical gas hydrates such as CH4, CO2, etc.