Average-atom approach for transport properties of shocked argon in the presence of a magnetic field

We present electron transport calculations of shocked argon based on an average-atom modeling of the plasma and compare them with measurements, involving both incident and reflected shock waves. Since the corresponding experiments are subject to a 5 T magnetic field, the impact of the latter on the Rankine-Hugoniot equations is taken into account, starting from the magnetoresistive hydrodynamics, and the resistivity tensor is deduced from the Boltzmann equation. The resistivity tensor yields the electrical and Hall resistivities. Our average-atom code PARADISIO provides the quantities required for the calculation of electrical resistivity within the Ziman-Evans formalism, as well as for the Hall resistivity. We obtain good agreement between calculated conductivities and experimental values, both for the incident and reflected shocks. Our values of the Hall constant are compared to experimental values derived from Hall voltage measurements, as well as to theoretical ones based on the quantum statistical linear-relaxation-time approach.