Transport properties of nonequilibrium polyatomic gas mixtures

Abstract

It is shown that the well-known Hirschfelder-Euken correction to the thermal conductivity of a polyatomic gas mixture given by the first approximation in Sonine polynomials can be less than the corresponding exact value (for a Lorentz mixture of light and heavy molecules interacting in accordance with Coulomb's law) by a factor of 3.4. Fairly high accuracy is achieved in the second approximation in Sonine polynomials. Within the framework of the latter, similar corrections to the nonequilibrium heat and diffusion fluxes are found. On the basis of the generalized Chapman-Enskog method a more general case is studied. In this case some of the nonelastic collision integrals is also taken into account in calculating the transport coefficients. The transport coefficients are either represented in terms of the well-known formulas for fast and retarded internal molecular energy exchange or convenient approximate expressions are obtained.