Heat conduction and near-equilibrium linear regime

Abstract

A comparison of experiment on heat conduction in a rod with a calculation shows that if the conditions for the near-equilibrium linear regime are fulfilled, the differences between the rigorous solution of the minimum entropy production problem and its linearized version are small. They usually fall within the limits of experimental error. Hence, it may well illustrate that the Prigogine's theorem of minimum entropy production, despite its well-known limits recalled in a recent discussion, may serve as a useful approximation to the problem in question.