A Commentary on Thermodynamics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Nonlinear Thermoelasticity

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 1-10

3. Simplification and Approximation

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 11-19

4. Efficiency Within Nonlinear Thermoelasticity

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 20-27

5. Efficiency Within Homogeneous and Dissipationless Thermoelasticity

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 28-42

6. Efficiency Within Linearized Thermoelasticity

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 43-71

7. Versions of a Second Law of Thermodynamics

   • William Alan Day

   Pages 72-92

8. Back Matter

   Pages 93-97

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The aim of this book is to comment on, and clarify, the mathematical aspects of the theory of thermodynamics. The standard presentations of the subject are often beset by a number of obscurities associated with the words "state", "reversible", "irreversible", and "quasi-static". This book is written in the belief that such obscurities are best removed not by the formal axiomatization of thermodynamics, but by setting the theory in the wider context of a genuine field theory which incorporates the effects of heat conduction and intertia, and proving appropriate results about the governing differential equations of this field theory. Even in the simplest one-dimensional case it is a nontrivial task to carry through the details of this program, and many challenging problems remain open.

• differential equation
• elasticity
• field theory
• thermodynamics

• Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

  William Alan Day

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