Thermal conductivity of a model diatomic fluid

Abstract

The contribution of the thermal conductivity coefficient from rotational degrees of freedom is evaluated for a rigid diatomic molecule interacting with a site-site Lennard-Jones potential. The thermal conductivity is calculated for the fluid at five densities, from the critical density to about 2·5 times the critical density, at a given temperature using a variant of non-Newtonian molecular dynamics. We show that the common practical simplification that the rotational contribution to the conductivity is independent of the density is invalid.