Combining modern thermodynamics theory branches, including finite time thermodynamics or entropy generation minimization, constructal theory and entransy theory, with metallurgical process engineering, this paper provides a new exploration on generalized thermodynamic optimization theory for iron and steel production processes. The theoretical core is to thermodynamically optimize performances ...

This communication presents finite time thermodynamic optimization of irreversible cascaded refrigeration and heat pump cycles having source/sink thermal reservoirs of finite heat capacitance. A general expression for the optimum coefficient of performance of the refrigerator/heat pump is derived at minimum power input and given cooling/heating load conditions, respectively. External irreversib...

The Casimir force has its origin in finite modification of the infinite zero-point energy induced by a specific boundary condition for the spatial configuration. In terms of the imaginary-time formalism at finite temperature, the root of Planck’s law of radiation can be traced back to finite modification of the infinite vacuum energy induced by the periodic boundary condition in the temporal di...

In this paper, we develop an energy-based, large-scale dynamical system model driven by Markov diffusion processes to present a unified framework for statistical thermodynamics predicated on a stochastic dynamical systems formalism. Specifically, using a stochastic state space formulation, we develop a nonlinear stochastic compartmental dynamical system model characterized by energy conservatio...

Within finite temperature field theory, we show that truncated non-perturbative self-consistent Dyson resummation schemes can be renormalized with local vacuum counterterms. For this the theory has to be renormalizable in the usual sense and the self-consistent scheme must follow Baym’s Φ-derivable concept. Our BPHZ-renormalization scheme leads to renormalized self-consistent equations of motio...

The density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) applied to transfer matrices allows it to calculate static as well as dynamical properties of onedimensional quantum systems at finite temperature in the thermodynamic limit. To this end the quantum system is mapped onto a two-dimensional classical system by a Trotter-Suzuki decomposition. Here we discuss two different mappings: The standard mappi...

If the work per cycle of a quantum heat engine is averaged over an appropriate prior distribution for an external parameter a , the work becomes optimal at Curzon-Ahlborn (CA) efficiency. More general priors of the form Π(a) ∝ 1/a(γ) yield optimal work at an efficiency which stays close to CA value, in particular near equilibrium the efficiency scales as one-half of the Carnot value. This featu...

Ensemble averaging of molecular states is fundamental for the experimental determination of thermodynamic quantities. A special case occurs for single-molecule investigations under equilibrium conditions, for which free energy, entropy and enthalpy at finite temperatures are challenging to determine with ensemble averaging alone. Here we report a method to directly record time-averaged equilibr...

We present an algorithm to simulate two-dimensional quantum lattice systems in the thermodynamic limit. Our approach builds on the projected entangled-pair state algorithm for finite lattice systems [F. Verstraete and J. I. Cirac, arxiv:cond-mat/0407066] and the infinite time-evolving block decimation algorithm for infinite one-dimensional lattice systems [G. Vidal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 070201 ...

The time-dependent thermal response to a step-wise temperature increase of a ferroelectric plate of BaTiO3 of finite thickness was determined using a combination of basic heat transfer relations to model the temperature variation in the ferroelectric as a function of time and a thermodynamic model based on a modified Landau formalism to calculate the polarization profile due to the temperature ...