Volume 42, Issue 1 -

A modeling study on a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell by means of non-equilibrium thermodynamics is presented. The developed model considers a one-dimensional cell in steady-state operation. The temperature, concentration and electric potential profiles are calculated for every domain of the cell. While the gas diffusion and the catalyst layers are calculated with established classical modeling approaches, the transport processes in the membrane are calculated with the phenomenological equations as dictated by the non-equilibrium thermodynamics. This approach is especially instructive for the membrane as the coupled transport mechanisms are dominant. The needed phenomenological coefficients are approximated on the base of conventional transport coefficients. Knowing the fluxes and their intrinsic corresponding forces, the local entropy production rate is calculated. Accordingly, the different loss mechanisms can be detected and quantified, which is important for cell and stack optimization.

Utilizing the adjoint equations that originate from the calculus of variations, we have calculated the maximum thermal efficiency that is theoretically attainable by free-piston engine generators considering the work loss due to friction and Joule heat. Based on the adjoint equations with seven dimensionless parameters, the trajectory of the piston, the histories of the electric current, the work done, and the two kinds of losses have been derived in analytic forms. Using these we have conducted parametric studies for the optimized Otto and Brayton cycles. The smallness of the pressure ratio of the Brayton cycle makes the net work done negative even when the duration of heat addition is optimized to give the maximum amount of heat addition. For the Otto cycle, the net work done is positive, and both types of losses relative to the gross work done become smaller with the larger compression ratio. Another remarkable feature of the optimized Brayton cycle is that the piston trajectory of the heat addition/disposal process is expressed by the same equation as that of an adiabatic process. The maximum thermal efficiency of any combination of isochoric and isobaric heat addition/disposal processes, such as the Sabathe cycle, may be deduced by applying the methods described here.

Reindeer in the arctic region live under very harsh conditions and may face temperatures below 233 K. Therefore, efficient conservation of body heat and water is important for their survival. Alongside their insulating fur, the reindeer nasal mechanism for heat and mass exchange during respiration plays a fundamental role. We present a dynamic model to describe the heat and mass transport that takes place inside the reindeer nose, where we account for the complicated geometrical structure of the subsystems that are part of the nose. The model correctly captures the trend in experimental data for the temperature, heat and water recovery in the reindeer nose during respiration. As a reference case, we model a nose with a simple cylindrical-like geometry, where the total volume and contact area are the same as those determined in the reindeer nose. A comparison of the reindeer nose with the reference case shows that the nose geometry has a large influence on the velocity, temperature and water content of the air inside the nose. For all investigated cases, we find that the total entropy production during a breathing cycle is lower for the reindeer nose than for the reference case. The same trend is observed for the total energy consumption. The reduction in the total entropy production caused by the complicated geometry is higher (up to -20 %) at more extreme ambient conditions, when energy efficiency is presumably more important for the maintenance of energy balance in the animal. In the literature, a hypothesis has been proposed, which states that the most energy-efficient design of a system is characterized by equipartition of the entropy production. In agreement with this hypothesis, we find that the local entropy production during a breathing cycle is significantly more uniform for the reindeer nose than for the reference case. This suggests that natural selection has favored designs that give uniform entropy production when energy efficiency is an issue. Animals living in the harsh arctic climate, such as the reindeer, can therefore serve as inspiration for a novel industrial design with increased efficiency.

Mathematical models have been developed to evaluate the dynamic behavior of two solar air collectors: the first one is equipped with a V-porous absorber and the second one with a U-corrugated absorber. The collectors have the same geometry, cross-section surface area and are built from the same materials, the only difference between them being the absorbers. V-corrugated absorbers have been treated in literature but the V-porous absorbers modeled here have not been very often considered. The models are based on first-order differential equations which describe the heat exchange between the main components of the two types of solar air heaters. Both collectors were exposed to the sun in the same meteorological conditions, at identical tilt angle and they operated at the same air mass flow rate. The tests were carried out in the climatic conditions of Bucharest (Romania, South Eastern Europe). There is good agreement between the theoretical results and experiments. The average bias error was about 7.75 % and 10.55 % for the solar air collector with “V”-porous absorber and with “U”-corrugated absorber, respectively. The collector based on V-porous absorber has higher efficiency than the collector with U-corrugated absorber around the noon of clear days. Around sunrise and sunset, the collector with U-corrugated absorber is more effective.

A conundrum in non-equilibrium thermodynamics of heterogeneous mixtures with microstructure concerns the selection of thermodynamic currents and forces in the entropy production rate from the multitude of available options. The objective of this article is to demonstrate that the low-Mach-number approximation can narrow down this ambiguity. More specifically, by postulating that the post-constitutive equations are well behaved with respect to this perturbation analysis we assert that thermal non-equilibrium should be chosen as an independent force even if this requires the explicit manipulation of the entropy inequality. According to our analysis, alternative choices result in post-constitutive equations; the incompressible limit of which gives rise to questionable predictions.