Entropy generation thermodynamic forces

At this point the need arises to become more explicit about the nature of entropy generation. In the case of the heat exchanger, entropy generation appears to be equal to the product of the heat flow and a factor that can be identified as the thermodynamic driving force, A(l/T). In the next chapter we turn to a branch of thermodynamics, better known as irreversible thermodynamics or nonequilibrium thermodynamics, to convey a much more universal message on entropy generation, flows, and driving forces. 

In Section 3.3, we have shown that the entropy generation rate in the case of heat transfer in a heat exchanger is simply the product of the thermodynamic driving force X = A(l/T), the natural cause, and its effect, the resultant flow / = Q, a velocity or rate. Selected monographs on irreversible thermodynamics, see, for example, [1], show how entropy generation also has roots in other driving forces such as chemical potential differences or affinities. 

This chapter establishes a direct relation between lost work and the fluxes and driving forces of a process. The Carnot cycle is revisited to investigate how the Carnot efficiency is affected by the irreversibilities in the process. We show to what extent the constraints of finite size and finite time reduce the efficiency of the process, but we also show that these constraints still allow a most favorable operation mode, the thermodynamic optimum, where the entropy generation and thus the lost work are at a minimum. Attention is given to the equipartitioning principle, which seems to be a universal characteristic of optimal operation in both animate and inanimate dynamic systems. 

On the other hand, irreversible thermodynamics has provided us with the insight that entropy generation is related to process flow rates like those of volume, V, mass in moles, h, chemical conversion, vl h, and heat, Q, and their so-called conjugated forces A(P/T), -A(p/T), A/T, and A(l/T). Although irreversible thermodynamics does not specify the relationship between these forces X and their conjugated flow rates /, it leaves no doubt about the... 

The ideal, unrealistic, but basic limit of the thermodynamic efficiency of a process is that of the reversible process where all work available and entering the process is still available after the process. Work has simply been transferred from one carrier to another. Driving forces are infinitesimally small and the process is "frictionless" no barriers have to be taken. As a result, there is neither entropy generation nor loss of available work. The work requirements of the process can be accurately calculated from the thermodynamic properties of the equilibrium states that the process passes through. 

For the establishment of the realistic limit, one has to take account of the rates of processes in which mass, heat, momentum, and chemical energy are transferred. In this so-called finite-time, finite-size thermodynamics, it is usually possible to establish optimal conditions for operating the process, namely, with a minimum, but nonzero, entropy generation and loss of work. Such optima seem to be characterized by a universal principle equiparti-tioning of the process s driving forces in time and space. The optima may eventually be shifted by including economic and environmental parameters such as fixed and variable costs and emissions. For this aspect, we refer to Chapter 13. 

To coordinate components, the generalized flows and the thermodynamic forces can be used to define the trajectories of the evolution of nonequilibriun systems in time. A trajectory specifies the curve represented by the flow and force components as a function of time in the flow-force space. A useful trajectory can be found and analyzed by a variation principle. In thermodynamics, the variation principles lead to the least energy dissipation and minimum entropy generation at steady states. According to the most general evolutionary criterion, open chemical reaction systems are dissipative, and evolve toward an asymptotic state in time. 

The theory treating near-equilibrium phenomena is called the linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics. It is based on the local equilibrium assumption in the system and phenomenological equations that linearly relate forces and flows of the processes of interest. Application of classical thermodynamics to nonequilibrium systems is valid for systems not too far from equilibrium. This condition does not prove excessively restrictive as many systems and phenomena can be found within the vicinity of equilibrium. Therefore equations for property changes between equilibrium states, such as the Gibbs relationship, can be utilized to express the entropy generation in nonequilibrium systems in terms of variables that are used in the transport and rate processes. The second law analysis determines the thermodynamic optimality of a physical process by determining the rate of entropy generation due to the irreversible process in the system for a required task. 

In this problem we explore classical irreversible thermodynamics for a multicomponent system, entropy generation, linear laws, and the molecnlar flux of thermal energy for a ternary system. Consider an N-component system (1 < j < Af) in the presence of external force fields and mnltiple chemical reactions (1 < y < / ). g, is the external force per unit mass that acts specifically on component i in the mixture, and r, is the overall rate of production of the mass of component i per unit volume, which is defined by... 

Extended Stefan-Maxwell constitutive laws for diffusion Eq. 4 resolve a number of fundamental problems presented by the Nemst-Planck transport formulation Eq. 1. A thermodynamically proper pair of fluxes and driving forces is used, guaranteeing that all the entropy generated by transport is taken into account. The symmetric formulation of Eq. 4 makes it unnecessary to identify a particular species as a solvent - every species in a solution is a solute on equal footing. Use of velocity differences reflects the physical criterion that the forces driving diffusion of species i relative to species j be invariant with respect to the convective velocity. Finally, all possible binary solute/solute interactions are quantified by distinct transport coefficients each species i in the solution has a diffusivity or mobility relative to every other species j, Djj or up, respectively. 

As mentioned before, nonequilibrium thermodynamics could be used to study the entropy generated by an irreversible process (Prigogine, 1945, 1947). The concept ofhnear nonequilibrium thermodynamics is that when the system is close to equilibrium, the hnear relationship can be obtained between the flux and the driving force (Demirel and Sandler, 2004 Lu et al, 2011). Based on our previous linear nonequihbrium thermodynamic studies on the dissolution and crystallization kinetics of potassium inorganic compounds (Ji et al, 2010 Liu et al, 2009 Lu et al, 2011), the nonequihbrium thermodynamic model of CO2 absorption and desorption kinetics by ILs could be studied. Figure 17 shows the schematic diagram of CO2 absorption kinetic process by ILs. In our work, the surface reaction mass transport rate and diffusion mass transport rate were described using the Hnear nonequihbrium thermodynamic theory. 

The optimal Reynolds number defines the operating conditions at which the cylindrical system performs a required heat and mass transport, and generates the minimum entropy. These expressions offer a thermodynamically optimum design. Some expressions for the entropy production in a multicomponent fluid take into account the coupling effects between heat and mass transfers. The resulting diffusion fluxes obey generalized Stefan-Maxwell relations including the effects of ordinary, forced, pressure, and thermal diffusion. 

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