Transport properties of local thermodynamic equilibrium hydrogen plasmas including electronically excited states

Abstract

A study of the dependence of transport coefficients (thermal conductivity, viscosity, electrical conductivity) of local thermodynamic equilibrium H2 plasmas on the presence of electronically atomic excited states, H(n), is reported. The results show that excited states with their "abnormal" cross sections strongly affect the transport coefficients especially at high pressure. Large relative errors are found when comparing the different quantities with the corresponding values obtained by using ground-state transport cross sections. The accuracy of the present calculation is finally discussed in the light of the selection of transport cross sections and in dependence of the considered number of excited states.