Comparative calculations of plasma ionization balance, collisionality and resistivity using various models in application to z-pinch physics*

High energy density plasmas produced by the imploding wire array loads, including single- and multi-planar wire arrays, has been extensively studied for the past few years at the University of Nevada, Reno at 1.7 MA Zebra facility. Various modeling tools such as the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) codes and non-LTE atomic kinetic models have been applied to analyze plasma dynamics and radiation features. In this work the results of the aforementioned models are compared with the average atom model (Thomas--Fermi and Ziman approximations). The analysis is accomplished for low (Al) and moderate (Cu) atomic number elements in broad ranges of T$_{e}$ and n$_{e}$. The advantage of application of such approach to the analysis of z-pinch experiments is discussed.