Title: The natural optimality in heat and fluid flow phenomena

Authors: Ahmet Z. Sahin

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Motivated by the fact that all natural flow processes are similar and governed by common differential equations and that the natural phenomena occur in most sustainable way, the mathematical expression for the common optimum feature of these processes is investigated. Consequently, a new thermodynamic property named |temheat| is introduced. Based on the second law of thermodynamics and the newly defined property temheat, it is found that a thermodynamic quantity, the rate of total temheat destruction, is minimised for all natural steady flow processes. The temheat destruction minimisation principle is useful in describing the natural flow phenomena and in numerical solution of flow related problems.

Keywords: fluid flow; heat transfer; optimisation; second law analysis; temheat destruction minimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2011.043043

International Journal of Exergy, 2011 Vol.9 No.3, pp.346 - 354

Received: 29 Jan 2011
Accepted: 17 Mar 2011
Published online: 12 Oct 2011 *

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