Predicting Transport Properties Without Adjustable Parameters

Accurate estimates of the transport properties of gaseous systems under conditions where experimental transport data are sparse of unavailable are important in a number of applications. The Hulburt-Hirschfelder (HH) potential for monatomic gas interactions, which is determined entirely by spectroscopic constants of diatomic molecules, provides a basis for calculating transport properties without adjustable parameters. In this paper we report test calculations of the viscosity, thermal conductivity and self-diffusion coefficients for argon. Comparison with the comprehensive correlation of thermophysical properties for argon by Kestin and co-workers shows very reasonable agreement for the transport properties at moderate and high temperatures. Deviations at lower temperatures may be attributed to inaccuracies in the long-range part of the HH potential, whereas the core and well of the potential appear to be adequately represented. These results strongly support the use of the HH potential for estimating the transport properties of monatomic gases at high t. © 1985.