Configuration-Specific Kinetic Theory Applied to an Ideal Binary Gas Mixture

Abstract

This paper is the second in a two-part series dealing with the configuration-specific analyses for molecular collision events of hard, spherical molecules at thermal equilibrium. The first paper analyzed a single-component system, and the reader is referred to it for the fundamental concepts. In this paper, the expressions for the configuration-specific collision frequencies and the average line-of-centers collision angles and speeds are derived for an ideal binary gas mixture. The analyses show that the average line-of-centers quantities are all dependent upon the ratio of the masses of the two components, but not upon molecular size. Of course, the configuration-specific collision frequencies do depend on molecular size. The expression for the overall binary collision frequency is a simple sum of the configuration-specific collision frequencies and is identical to the conventional expression.