Transport coefficients of hard-sphere mixtures: theory and Monte Carlo molecular-dynamics calculations for an isotopic mixture

The thermal transport properties of mixtures can be formulated in a number of ways, depending on the choice of driving forces for the transport of heat and matter, without violating the Onsager conditions. Here we treat transport in mixtures based on the driving forces -del ln T and -T del(..mu../sub a//T), with T the temperature and ..mu../sub a/ the specific chemical potential, to obtain the Green-Kubo expressions and the Enskog theory for the corresponding transport coefficients which seem most amenable to molecular-dynamics evaluation. The transport properties of a hard-sphere mixture (mass ratio of 0.1, diameter ratio of 1.0, at a volume of three times close-packed volume), calculated by a Monte Carlo, molecular-dynamics method based on the Green-Kubo formulas, are compared with the predictions of the Enskog theory. The long-time behavior of the Green-Kubo time-correlation functions for shear viscosity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusion, and mutual diffusion are found to be in good agreement with the predictions of mode-coupling theory. Except for viscosity, the contribution of the long-time tails to the transport coefficients is found to be significant. We obtain values, relative to Enskog, of 1.016 +- 0.007 for shear viscosity, 1.218 +- 0.009 for thermal conductivity, 1.267 +- 0.026 for thermalmore » diffusion, and 1.117 +- 0.008 for mutual diffusion.« less