Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics - Overview

Overview

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a work in progress, not an established edifice. This article cannot give a full account of it. This article will try to sketch some approaches to it and some concepts important for it.

Some concepts of particular importance for non-equilibrium thermodynamics include time rate of dissipation of energy (Rayleigh 1873, Onsager 1931, also), time rate of entropy production (Onsager 1931), thermodynamic fields, dissipative structure, and non-linear dynamical structure.

Of interest is the thermodynamic study of non-equilibrium steady states, in which entropy production and some flows are non-zero, but there is no time variation.

One initial approach to non-equilibrium thermodynamics is sometimes called 'classical irreversible thermodynamics'. There are other approaches to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, for example extended irreversible thermodynamics, and generalized thermodynamics, but they are hardly touched on in the present article.