Thermodynamic properties and transport coefficients of high-temperature air plasma

Summary form only given, as follows. This paper presents the results of a revised calculation of the thermodynamic properties and transport coefficients presented by Capitelli et al. (see Eur. Phys. J. D., vol.11, p.279-89 (2000)) for high temperature air. The calculations, which assume local thermodynamic equilibrium, are performed for different pressures (from .001 to 1000 atm) in the temperature range from 50 to 30000 K. The results have been obtained by means of higher Chapman-Enskog approximations after an appropriate selection of the collision integrals. The calculations include viscosity, total thermal conductivity and electric conductivity. Internal partition functions tabulated by Giordano et al. (1994) and a recent compilation of collision integrals obtained by Capitelli et al. (2000) have been used to calculate plasma composition, thermodynamic properties and transport coefficients. A new efficient method developed by the authors has been used to calculate the equilibrium composition of the gas. The collision integrals used in calculating the transport coefficients are significantly more accurate than values used in previous theoretical studies. In particular, accurate collision integrals, carried out by Mason (1967 and 1971), for interactions between charged species were calculated using the attractive and repulsive screened Coulomb potentials with quantum-mechanical corrections. The results are compared with experimental and theoretical values. Analytical expression for all transport coefficients and thermodynamic parameters are also reported.