Numerical estimates for the bulk viscosity of ideal gases

Abstract

We estimate the bulk viscosity of a selection of well known ideal gases. A relatively simple formula is combined with published values of rotational and vibrational relaxation times. It is shown that the bulk viscosity can take on a wide variety of numerical values and variations with temperature. Several fluids, including common diatomic gases, are seen to have bulk viscosities which are hundreds or thousands of times larger than their shear viscosities. We have also provided new estimates for the bulk viscosity of water vapor in the range 380–1000 K. We conjecture that the variation of bulk viscosity with temperature will have a local maximum for most fluids. The Lambert-Salter correlation is used to argue that the vibrational contribution to the bulk viscosities of a sequence of fluids having a similar number of hydrogen atoms at a fixed temperature will increase with the characteristic temperature of the lowest vibrational mode.