AQUA: a collection of H₂O equations of state for planetary models^★

Department of Space Research & Planetary Sciences, University of Bern, Gesellschaftsstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
e-mail: jonas.haldemann@space.unibe.ch

Received: 7 May 2020
Accepted: 18 September 2020

Abstract

Context. Water is one of the key chemical elements in planetary structure modelling. Due to its complex phase diagram, equations of state often only cover parts of the pressure-temperature space needed in planetary modelling.

Aims. We aim to construct an equation of state of H₂O spanning a very wide range, from 0.1 Pa to 400 TPa and 150 to 10⁵ K, which can be used to model the interior of planets.

Methods. We combined equations of state valid in localised regions to form a continuous equation of state spanning over the above-mentioned pressure and temperature range.

Results. We provide tabulated values for the most important thermodynamic quantities: the density, adiabatic temperature gradient, entropy, internal energy, and bulk speed of sound of water over this pressure and temperature range. For better usability we also calculated density-temperature and density-internal energy grids. We discuss further the impact of this equation of state on the mass radius relation of planets compared to other popular equations of state like ANEOS and QEOS.

Conclusions. AQUA is a combination of existing equations of state useful for planetary models. We show that, in most regions, AQUA is a thermodynamic consistent description of water. At pressures above 10 GPa, AQUA predicts systematic larger densities than ANEOS or QEOS. This is a feature that was already present in a previously proposed equation of state, which is the main underlying equation of this work. We show that the choice of the equation of state can have a large impact on the mass-radius relation, which highlights the importance of future developments in the field of equations of state and regarding experimental data of water at high pressures.