On the validity of the Onsager relations in an inert multiple dilute gas mixture (Q819333)

The paper addresses an issue of a correspondence between experimentally measured transport coefficients in dilute mixtures and various theoretical expressions for thermodynamic fluxes and forces which appear in the literature. Analytically tractable results in the nonequilibrium description of transport phenomena pertain to Onsager's reciprocity relations, obtained within so-called linear irreversible thermodynamics framework. The presumed validity of reciprocity relations needs a careful confrontation with the phenomenology of kinetic theory. Specifically, a consistent identification of Onsager's coefficients is necessary with phenomenological entries in the flux or force definition. An incorrect identification of e.g. thermal conductivity, mutual diffusion coefficient, cross coefficients would break down the reciprocity relations.