This book presents different thermodynamic approaches in the area of constitutive theory: thermodynamics of irreversible processes, rational thermodynamics, and extended thermodynamics. These different approaches are analyzed with respect to their presuppositions, as well as to their results, and each method is applied to several important examples. In many cases these examples are archetypes for numerous technologically important materials; i.e. complex materials having an internal structure. Some of the examples dealt with in this book are liquid crystals, colloid suspensions, and fiber suspensions.

The book well serves students and researchers who have basic knowledge in continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. It provides a systematic overview of the vast field of thermodynamic constitutive theory, beginning from a historical perspective and concluding with outstanding questions in recent research.

Autorentext

Christina Papenfuß completed her Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) in 1995 and was awarded her Habilitation in the field of Mechanics in 2005. She has held academic positions as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Mechanics (TU Berlin), as well as Associate Professor at the Beuth University for Applied Sciences and the Berlin University of Applied Sciences for Engineering and Economics (HTW Berlin). Since 2015 she is Full Professor at the HTW Berlin and teaches Technical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and Fluid Mechanics. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed publications and is a scholarship holder from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the Isolde-Dietrich-Stiftung.

Inhalt

Continuum Mechanics: Kinematics and Balance Equations.- Thermodynamics.- Constitutive Theory and State Spaces.- Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes (TIP).- Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes with Internal Variables.- Rational Thermodynamics and Non-Classical Thermodynamics.- Extended Thermodynamics.- Shock Fronts and Hyperbolic Systems of Differential Equations.- Two-Dimensional Systems and Material Surfaces.- Outlook: Mesoscopic Theory of Complex Materials.