Transport of internal electronic energy in atomic hydrogen thermal plasmas

Abstract

Reactive and internal thermal conductivities for equilibrium hydrogen plasma have been calculated by the Chapman-Enskog method. The equilibrium composition of the plasma is determined by taking consistently into account the number of allowed atomic electronic excited states (EES) as determined by the average interparticle distance. The coefficients depend on the inclusion of realistic cross sections for the interactions with EES. In particular, the interplay between the two coefficients that describe the transport of electronic and ionization energy is analyzed.