Transport properties of H–N₂ mixtures

Abstract

Transport coefficients (shear viscosity, volume viscosity, thermal conductivity, and mass and thermal diffusion coefficients) of H–N₂ mixtures in the dilute-gas limit have been calculated from the intermolecular potential in the temperature range 300–2000K using the classical trajectory method. The intermediate results pertaining to H–N₂ binary interactions are reported, mainly in terms of cross-section ratios. Cross-sections evaluated with the Mason–Monchick approximation yield very good results for this system, the largest deviations, about 2.5%, being observed for the thermal diffusion coefficient. The accuracy here of this approximation can primarily be attributed to a light H atom and a weakly non-spherical potential resulting in a high rotational collision number. Furthermore, we investigate to which H–N₂ cross-sections and their ratios the values of the mixture transport coefficients are most sensitive. Our results indicate that, for some cross-section ratios, reliance on universal correlations at high temperatures, often used in flame codes, can induce sizeable errors in the thermal conductivity coefficient and especially in the thermal diffusion coefficients. We also observed that the volume viscosity is particularly sensitive to the value of the cross-section for internal energy relaxation in H–N₂ collisions.