Modeling viscosity and diffusion of plasma for pure elements and multicomponent mixtures from weakly to strongly coupled regimes

An analytic model is presented that predicts viscosity and diffusion of plasma for pure elements and multicomponent mixtures, from the high-temperature low-density weakly coupled regime to the low-temperature high-density strongly coupled regime. It relies on a pseudo-ion in jellium modeling that incorporates the effect of electron screening on the ion–ion interaction in the pseudo-ionization. Mixtures are treated using approximate kinetic expressions and mixing laws applied to the excess viscosity and self-diffusion of pure elements. Comparisons are made with classical and quantum molecular dynamics results to assess its accuracy. The mean deviations are in the range 20–40% with almost no predictions further than a factor of 2 over many decades of variation. Applications of this model in the inertial confinement fusion context could help in predicting the appearance and the growth of hydrodynamic instabilities.