Charged Particle Transport with Average Atoms

By thermodynamically averaging over all atoms in a plasma, we can define an average atom, with an average electronic structure. Such models have existed since at least the 1940’s, and are still very useful. Though they are principally used for EOS, it turns out that average atom models are also very useful for calculating charged particle transport properties. In this talk I will summarize our efforts in this area, including ionic transport (diffusion, viscosity, etc) and electron transport (i.e., conductivity), highlighting the successes and limitations or our approach.