Thermodynamics e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Moreover the available energy method possesses considerable advantages in the treatment of thermodynamical equilibria. If we assume that in a state of equilibrium the available energy of a system is a minimum it follows immediately that the conditions of equilibrium can be deduced from the equations of reversible thermodynamics and that it is only when the stability of the equilibrium is discussed that recourse must be had to the inequalities of irreversible thermodynamics.