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The Foundations of Thermodynamics
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The Foundations of Thermodynamics

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Thermodynamics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 13835

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David Sands

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Hull, Cottingham Rd., Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: Clausius; Kelvin; reversibility; irreversibility; entropy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The term “thermo-dynamics” was used by Kelvin in the early 1850s to denote the science of using heat to generate work and vice versa, but developments by Maxwell, Boltzmann and Gibbs, among others, changed the meaning to reflect a concern with microscopic phenomena. This movement probably owes its origins to Clausius, whose own work rapidly moved away from heat engines and cyclic processes to non-cyclic processes and, in particular, the concept of the entropy of a body. The drift away from cyclic phenomena was further emphasized by the work of Caratheodory, whose highly mathematical approach was simplified by Landsberg in the twentieth century. Thus, the foundations of thermodynamics have been laid by numerous people, from Carnot to Landsberg. For this Special Issue, submissions are invited on the contributions of the founders of the subject, including, but not limited to, those mentioned above as well as topics including but not limited to the development and interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics, changing conceptions of heat, the development of the concepts of energy and entropy and cyclic vs. non-cyclic processes.

Dr. David Sands
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Carnot
  • Clausius
  • Kelvin
  • Maxwell
  • Reversible
  • Irreversible
  • Cyclic processes
  • Heat engines
  • Aequivalenzwerth
  • Entropy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

35 pages, 1068 KiB  
Article
Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics: Boltzmann’s versus Planck’s State Definitions and Counting †
by Peter Enders
Entropy 2021, 23(7), 875; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e23070875 - 08 Jul 2021
Viewed by 2173
Abstract
During the physical foundation of his radiation formula in his December 1900 talk and subsequent 1901 article, Planck refers to Boltzmann’s 1877 combinatorial-probabilistic treatment and obtains his quantum distribution function, while Boltzmann did not. For this, Boltzmann’s memoirs are usually ascribed to classical [...] Read more.
During the physical foundation of his radiation formula in his December 1900 talk and subsequent 1901 article, Planck refers to Boltzmann’s 1877 combinatorial-probabilistic treatment and obtains his quantum distribution function, while Boltzmann did not. For this, Boltzmann’s memoirs are usually ascribed to classical statistical mechanics. Agreeing with Bach, it is shown that Boltzmann’s 1868 and 1877 calculations can lead to a Planckian distribution function, where those of 1868 are even closer to Planck than that of 1877. Boltzmann’s and Planck’s calculations are compared based on Bach’s three-level scheme ‘configuration–occupation–occupancy’. Special attention is paid to the concepts of interchangeability and the indistinguishability of particles and states. In contrast to Bach, the level of exposition is most elementary. I hope to make Boltzmann’s work better known in English and to remove misunderstandings in the literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Foundations of Thermodynamics)
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24 pages, 4538 KiB  
Article
The Carnot Cycle, Reversibility and Entropy
by David Sands
Entropy 2021, 23(7), 810; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e23070810 - 25 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3583
Abstract
The Carnot cycle and the attendant notions of reversibility and entropy are examined. It is shown how the modern view of these concepts still corresponds to the ideas Clausius laid down in the nineteenth century. As such, they reflect the outmoded idea, current [...] Read more.
The Carnot cycle and the attendant notions of reversibility and entropy are examined. It is shown how the modern view of these concepts still corresponds to the ideas Clausius laid down in the nineteenth century. As such, they reflect the outmoded idea, current at the time, that heat is motion. It is shown how this view of heat led Clausius to develop the entropy of a body based on the work that could be performed in a reversible process rather than the work that is actually performed in an irreversible process. In consequence, Clausius built into entropy a conflict with energy conservation, which is concerned with actual changes in energy. In this paper, reversibility and irreversibility are investigated by means of a macroscopic formulation of internal mechanisms of damping based on rate equations for the distribution of energy within a gas. It is shown that work processes involving a step change in external pressure, however small, are intrinsically irreversible. However, under idealised conditions of zero damping the gas inside a piston expands and traces out a trajectory through the space of equilibrium states. Therefore, the entropy change due to heat flow from the reservoir matches the entropy change of the equilibrium states. This trajectory can be traced out in reverse as the piston reverses direction, but if the external conditions are adjusted appropriately, the gas can be made to trace out a Carnot cycle in P-V space. The cycle is dynamic as opposed to quasi-static as the piston has kinetic energy equal in difference to the work performed internally and externally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Foundations of Thermodynamics)
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61 pages, 715 KiB  
Article
Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics—The Nonequilibrium Perspective
by Henning Struchtrup
Entropy 2020, 22(7), 793; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/e22070793 - 21 Jul 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6877
Abstract
An alternative to the Carnot-Clausius approach for introducing entropy and the second law of thermodynamics is outlined that establishes entropy as a nonequilibrium property from the onset. Five simple observations lead to entropy for nonequilibrium and equilibrium states, and its balance. Thermodynamic temperature [...] Read more.
An alternative to the Carnot-Clausius approach for introducing entropy and the second law of thermodynamics is outlined that establishes entropy as a nonequilibrium property from the onset. Five simple observations lead to entropy for nonequilibrium and equilibrium states, and its balance. Thermodynamic temperature is identified, its positivity follows from the stability of the rest state. It is shown that the equations of engineering thermodynamics are valid for the case of local thermodynamic equilibrium, with inhomogeneous states. The main findings are accompanied by examples and additional discussion to firmly imbed classical and engineering thermodynamics into nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Foundations of Thermodynamics)
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