Ab initio determination of electrical and thermal conductivity of liquid aluminum

We present here a technique to compute electronic thermal conductivity of fluids using quantum-molecular dynamics and the formulation of Chester-Tellung for the Kubo-Greenwood formula. In order to validate our implementation, the electrical and thermal conductivities of liquid aluminum were determined from 70 K above the melting point up to 10 000 K. Results agree well with experimental data for Al at 1000 K. The Lorentz number, defined as K/sigma T, where K is the thermal conductivity, sigma is the electrical conductivity, and T is the temperature, is close to the ideal value of 2.44x10(-8) for metals, and the Wiedemann-Franz law is verified.