115 research outputs found
Steepest-entropy-ascent quantum thermodynamic modeling of heat and mass diffusion in a far-from-equilibrium system based on a single particle ensemble
This paper presents a nonequilibrium thermodynamic model for the relaxation
of a local, isolated system in nonequilibrium using the principle of steepest
entropy ascent (SEA), which can be expressed as a variational principle in
thermodynamic state space. The model is able to arrive at the Onsager relations
for such a system. Since no assumption of local equilibrium is made, the
conjugate fluxes and forces, which result, are intrinsic to the subspaces of
the system's state space and are defined using the concepts of hypoequilibrium
state and nonequilibrium intensive properties, which describe the non-mutual
equilibrium status between subspaces of the thermodynamic state space. The
Onsager relations are shown to be a thermodynamic kinematic feature of the
system independent of the specific details of the micro-mechanical dynamics.
Two kinds of relaxation processes are studied with different constraints (i.e.,
conservation laws) corresponding to heat and mass diffusion. Linear behavior in
the near-equilibrium region as well as nonlinear behavior in the
far-from-equilibrium region are discussed. Thermodynamic relations in the
equilibrium and near-equilibrium realm, including the Gibbs relation, the
Clausius inequality, and the Onsager relations, are generalized to the
far-from-equilibrium realm. The variational principle in the space spanned by
the intrinsic conjugate fluxes and forces is expressed via the quadratic
dissipation potential. As an application, the model is applied to the heat and
mass diffusion of a system represented by a single particle ensemble, which can
also be applied to a simple system of many particles. Phenomenological
transport coefficients are also derived in near-equilibrium realm.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
- …