Fourier Heat Conduction as a phenomenon described within the scope of the Second Law

摘要

The historical development of the Carnot cycle necessitated the constructionof isothermal and adiabatic pathways within the cycle that were alsomechanically "reversible" which lead eventually to the Kelvin-Clausiusdevelopment of the entropy function where the heat absorption is for thediathermal (isothermal) paths of the cycle only. It is deduced from traditionalarguments that Fourier heat conduction involves mechanically "reversible" heattransfer with irreversible entropy increase. Here we model heat conduction as athermodynamically reversible but mechanically irreversible process. The MDsimulations conducted shows excellent agreement with the theory. Such views andresults as these, if developed to a successful conclusion could imply that theCarnot cycle be viewed as describing a local process of energy-work conversionand that irreversible local processes might be brought within the scope of thiscycle, implying a unified treatment of thermodynamically (i) irreversible, (ii)reversible, (iii) isothermal and (iv) adiabatic processes.