Volume 49, Issue 1

The equivalence between irreversibility and dissipation entails that the Onsager reciprocal relations hold unconditionally, requiring the part of the phenomenological matrix describing dissipative phenomena to be symmetric. The antisymmetric part of the phenomenological matrix corresponds to the Casimir’s variant of the reciprocal relations and describes reversible phenomena. Further, we discuss the relationship of the reversibility and entropy production, including the role of the level of description, and we use the chemotaxis as an illustrative example.

A finite-time thermodynamic (FTT) model of three-heat-reservoir thermal Brownian refrigerator is established in this paper. This model can be equivalent to the coupling of a thermal Brownian engine and a thermal Brownian refrigerator with heat transfer effects. Expressions for cooling load and coefficient of performance (COP) are derived by combining FTT and non-equilibrium thermodynamics (NET). The system performance is studied and compared with those of previous models. For fixed internal parameters, the thermal conductance distributions among three heat exchangers are optimized for maximal cooling load. For fixed inventory allocations, the internal parameters are also optimized for maximal cooling load. Finally, the double-maximum cooling load is obtained by optimizing internal parameters and external thermal conductance distributions simultaneously, and the optimal operating temperatures are also derived. Results show that half of total thermal conductance should be placed in condenser to reject heat to ambient under maximal cooling load regime. The heat transfer determines system performance by controlling the working temperatures and the coupling of two external loads. The system works in reversible state when COP reaches its maximum value. The new performance limits can predict that of three-heat-reservoir thermal Brownian refrigerator more accurately, and also include those of NET model.

The Gifford-McMahon cryocoolers are considered to be prominent candidates for the cooling of high-temperature superconducting magnets, liquefaction of permanent gases, helium recondensation in magnetic resonance imaging machines, cooling of superconducting quantum interference device, etc. In this paper, multi-dimensional numerical simulation is performed to visualize the oscillating heat and fluid flow processes that happen in a mechanically driven GM cryocooler. Influence of the ideal gas equation and real gas equation of states on the cooling behaviour is explained. The minimum achievable refrigeration temperature of a uniform mesh regenerator is compared with a multi-mesh regenerator. It is noticed that a multi-mesh regenerator produces a lower refrigeration temperature as compared to a uniform mesh regenerator. In addition to this, a one-dimensional simulation is conducted and results are compared with multi-dimensional numerical simulation. The no-load temperature value calculated by the one-dimensional model and multi-dimensional model with ideal gas is lower than that of real gas equations. Additionally, the refrigerating capacity calculated by the one-dimensional model and multi-dimensional model with the ideal gas equation is higher than those of the real gas equation of state.

The paper evaluates a passive method for heat transfer improvement in heat exchangers, which implies the use of nanofluids. All calculations were carried out with a constant volumetric flow rate. The study examines three fluids with 0–4 % volume concentrations of CuO, MgO, and Al 2 O 3 particles. The results indicate an increase in the heat transfer coefficient with increasing temperature. An Al 2 O 3 nanofluid (4 % concentration) contributed to the best thermal performance. The incorporation of a 4 % content of MgO yielded an augmentation in heat transfer ranging from 15 % to 22 %, whereas an analogous concentration of CuO led to a more substantial enhancement of 25 %. Notably, the introduction of nanoparticles of Al 2 O 3 produces a remarkable augmentation in heat transfer performance, with potential improvements of up to 36 %. The Nusselt number increases with increasing particle volume fraction and Reynolds number, according to results obtained for several nanoparticles (Al 2 O 3 , CuO, SiO 2 , and ZnO) with volume percentages in the range of 1–4 % and nanoparticle diameters of 25–70 nm. For all nanofluids, the time-averaged Nusselt number rises with a solid phase volume fraction increase of less than 5 %.

The article utilizes the fractional bioheat model in spherical coordinates to explain the transfer of heat in living tissues during magnetic hyperthermia treatment for tumors. Maintaining therapeutic temperature is crucial in magnetic fluid hyperthermia, which requires accurate estimations of power dissipation to determine the appropriate number of magnetic particles required for treatment. To address this problem, a hybrid numerical approach that combines Laplace transforms, change of variables, and modified discretization techniques is proposed in this paper. The study investigates the impact of the fractional parameter and differences in thermophysical properties between diseased and healthy tissue. The numerical temperature results are presented in a graph, and their validity is demonstrated by comparing them with previous literature.

Based on finite-time-thermodynamic theory and the model established in previous literature, the multi-objective optimization analysis for an endoreversible closed Atkinson cycle is conducted through using the NSGA-II algorithm. With the final state point temperature ( T 2 ) of cycle compression process as the optimization variable and the thermal efficiency ( η ), the dimensionless efficient power ( E ̄ P ${\bar{E}}_{P}$ ), the dimensionless ecological function ( E ̄ $\bar{E}$ ) and the dimensionless power ( P ̄ $\bar{P}$ ) as the optimization objectives, the influences of T 2 on the four optimization objectives are analyzed, multi-objective optimization analyses of single-, two-, three- and four-objective are conducted, and the optimal cycle optimization objective combination is chosen by using three decision-making methods which include LINMAP, TOPSIS, and Shannon Entropy. The result shows that when four-objective optimization is conducted, with the ascent of T 2 , P ̄ $\bar{P}$ descends, η ascends, both E ̄ $\bar{E}$ and E ̄ P ${\bar{E}}_{P}$ firstly ascend and then descend. In this situation, the deviation index is the smallest and equals to 0.2657 under the decision-making method of Shannon Entropy, so its optimization result is the optimal. The multi-objective optimization results are able to provide certain guidelines for the design of practical closed Atkinson cycle heat engine.

We employ the generalized bracket formalism of nonequilibrium thermodynamics by Beris and Edwards to derive Lorentz-covariant time-evolution equations for an imperfect fluid with viscosity, dilatational viscosity, and thermal conductivity. Following closely the analysis presented by Öttinger (Physica A, 259, 1998, 24–42; Physica A, 254, 1998, 433–450) to the same problem but for the GENERIC formalism, we include in the set of hydrodynamic variables a covariant vector playing the role of a generalized thermal force and a covariant tensor closely related to the velocity gradient tensor. In our work here, we derive first the nonrelativistic equations and then we proceed to obtain the relativistic ones by elevating the thermal variable to a four-vector, the mechanical force variable to a four-by-four tensor, and by representing the Hamiltonian of the system with the time component of the energy-momentum tensor. For the Poisson and dissipation brackets we assume the same general structure as in the nonrelativistic case, but with the phenomenological coefficients in the dissipation bracket describing friction to heat and viscous effects being properly constrained for the resulting dynamic equations to be manifest Lorentz-covariant. The final relativistic equations are identical to those derived by Öttinger but the present approach seems to be more general in the sense that one could think of alternative forms of the phenomenological coefficients describing friction that could ensure Lorentz-covariance.