A relationship between structural, thermodynamic, transport and surface properties of liquid metals: a hard-sphere description

Using the values of the self-diffusion coefficient, D-HS, in the hard-sphere fluid obtained by computer simulations, we have investigated a relationship between structural, thermodynamic, transport and surface properties of liquid metals near the melting point. The packing fraction, xi, used in this D-HS were determined from the excess entropy including a contribution arising from the softness of the interatomic forces. The value of xi thus determined is 0.463, by which the hard-sphere structure factor can well describe experimental structure factor data of liquid metals near the melting point. Then, the viscosity coefficient, eta, and the surface tension, gamma, were calculated using D-HS. The surface entropy and the temperature derivative of eta at constant volume were also calculated with xi = 0.463. Predicted values of the transport and the surface properties are reasonable in comparison with available experimental data. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.