Generalization of the Moment Method of Maxwell-Grad for Multi-Temperature Gas Mixtures and Plasmas

Abstract

A coupled system of balance equations is derived for the coefficients of orthogonal expansions of the velocity distribution functions. The orthogonal functions are not specified, but the initial func­ tions must be local Maxwellians with different temperatures for different species of particles. Closed expressions for the matrix elements of the non-linearized Boltzmann operator are given, whose dominant terms are determined and compared.