Thermal conductivity and viscosity of moderately dense quadrupolar gases

Abstract

The effect of quadrupole-quadrupole interaction on the initial pressure dependence of viscosity and thermal conductivity is evaluated by assuming equal probability for all the relative orientations of the interacting quadrupoles. The quantitative agreement between theory and experiment is quite satisfactory. It is concluded that the method of approximating the three-body encounters by two-body collisions between a monomer and a dimer may serve as an important tool for the study of transport coefficients of gases at elevated pressures provided the dimer concentration and the force parameters for monomer-dimer interaction are evaluated accurately. A new approach is suggested for calculating approximately the force parameters of the dimer.