Calculation of the effective thermal diffusion coefficients of a nonlinear multielement plasma

Gasdynamics problems associated with nonideal-plasma flows in MHD generators and similar devices are usually solved in an approximation of local chemical equilibrium, assuming a quasi-neutral plasma. In the present paper, it is shown that, in this approximation, it is expedient to use the diffusion equations of the chemical elements, rather than those of the plasma components, whenever the number of plasma components is greater than the number of chemical elements. The mass flows of the chemical elements and the 'molecular' thermal flux are determined by introducing effective transport coefficients. The transport coefficients are calculated from solutions to specific gasdynamics problems, and the transport properties of the plasma are tabulated as a function of the pressure, temperature, and fractions of the chemical elements of which the plasma consists.