Temperature dependence of structural and transport properties of less‐simple liquid metals

Shear viscosity and self‐diffusion coefficients are calculated for certain less‐simple liquid metals at various temperatures. The basic assumption undertaken is that these properties of a liquid metal resemble those of an appropriate hard sphere fluid. The temperature dependence of the basic ingredients, i.e. the hard sphere diameter and packing fraction is considered via a full thermodynamic perturbation formalism. The essential features inherited by these metals are included in the relevant electron‐ion interactions. A variational procedure leading to a minimization of the free energy is employed to determine the optimum values of the hard sphere diameters and packing fractions. These optimal and self‐consistent ingredients are employed in computing the shear viscosity and self‐diffusion coefficients of Ag, Hg, Ga, and Sn. The calculated results are found to be in agreement with the experimental and the available theoretical results for most of these metals.