  This study demonstrates that the transport properties of alkali metals are
determined principally by the repulsive wall of the pair interaction potential
function. The (hard-wall) Lennard-Jones(15-6) effective pair potential function
is used to calculate transport collision integrals. Accordingly, reduced
collision integrals of K, Rb, and Cs metal vapors are obtained from
Chapman-Enskog solution of the Boltzman equation. The law of corresponding
states based on the experimental-transport reduced collision integral is used
to verify the validity of a LJ(15-6) hybrid potential in describing the
transport properties. LJ(8.5-4) potential function and a simple thermodynamic
argument with the input PVT data of liquid metals provide the required
molecular potential parameters. Values of the predicted viscosity of monatomic
alkali metals vapor are in agreement with typical experimental data with the
average absolute deviation 2.97% for K in the range 700-1500 K, 1.69% for Rb,
and 1.75% for Cs in the range 700-2000 K. In the same way, the values of
predicted thermal conductivity are in agreement with experiment within 2.78%,
3.25%, and 3.63% for K, Rb, and Cs, respectively. The LJ(15-6) hybrid potential
with a hard-wall repulsion character conclusively predicts best transport
properties of the three alkali metals vapor.
