Kinetic theory of field effects in nonuniform molecular gases

Abstract:

Effects of magnetic and electric fields on transport phenomena in dilute polyatomic gases are reviewed within the framework of first order Enskog theory. The established technique of approximate operator inversion is used to give first order approximations of the transport coefficients. Instead of the customary expansion of polarizations into orthogonal polynomials a more general treatment is chosen here so as to accommodate recent experimental observations. The polarizations produced by macroscopic fluxes are assumed to be eigenfunctions of the collision operator within the subspace of functions anisotropic in angular momentum. The formalism is extended to mixtures in a way to let the final experssions assume the same form as for pure gases. The obtained transport coefficients obey several symmetry relations and inequalities. Additional inequalities are now also derived for the matrix describing the saturated field effects.