TRANSPORT-COEFFICIENTS OF AIR, ARGON-AIR, NITROGEN-AIR, AND OXYGEN-AIR PLASMAS

Calculated values of the viscosity, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of air and mixtures of air and argon, air and nitrogen, and air and oxygen at high temperatures are presented. In addition, combined ordinary, pressure, and thermal diffusion coefficients are given for the gas mixtures. The calculations, which assume local thermodynamic equilibrium, are performed for atmospheric pressure plasmas in the temperature range from 300 to 30,000 K. The results for air plasmas are compared with those of published theoretical and experimental studies. Significant discrepancies are found with the other theoretical studies; these are attributed to differences in the collision integrals used in calculating the transport coefficients. A number of the collision integrals used here are significantly more accurate than values used previously, resulting in more reliable values of the transport coefficients.