相关论文: Electricity instead of heat
In the derivation of the thermodynamics of overdamped systems, one ignores the kinetic energy contribution, since the velocity is a slow variable. In this paper, we show that the kinetic energy needs to be present in the calculation of the…
A quintessential source of heat, the Sun radiates toward the Earth a power ten thousand times greater than humanity's energy needs. Harnessing this energy bounty, however, requires capturing and converting sunlight. Today, this conversion…
We considered a novel energy storage system based on the compression of air through pumped water. Differently from CAES on trial, the proposed indirect compression leaves the opportunity to choose the kind of compression from adiabatic to…
The cooling of boiling water all the way down to freezing, by thermally connecting it to a thermal bath held at ambient temperature without external intervention, would be quite unexpected. We describe the equivalent of a 'thermal…
For various reasons including those related to climate changes, {\em energy} has become a critical concern in all relevant activities and technical designs. For the specific case of computer activities, the problem is exacerbated with the…
Thermoelectric energy conversion is a direct but low-efficiency process, which precludes the development of long-awaited wide-scale applications. As a breakthrough permitting a drastic performance increase is seemingly out of reach, we…
Forced convection cooling is important in numerous technologies ranging from microprocessors in data centers to turbines and engines; active cooling is essential in these situations. However, active transfer of heat or thermal energy under…
Thermoelectric power generators are used to convert heat into electricity. Like any other heat engine, the performance of a thermoelectric generator increases as the temperature difference on the sides increases. It is generally assumed…
The physical impossibility of heat transfer under isothermal conditions implies that the classical expression for the entropy of the ideal gas may not be compatible with the internal energy of the gas itself. A corrected expression of the…
Situations where a spontaneous process of energy or matter transfer is enhanced by an external device are widespread in nature (human sweating system, enzyme catalysis, facilitated diffusion across bio-membranes, industrial heat…
Thermal transport is a fundamental mechanism of energy transfer process quite distinct from wave propagation phenomena. It can be manipulated well beyond the possibilities offered by natural materials with a new generation of artificial…
The current thermo-industrial civilization is critically dependent on fossil fuel energy sources. An intuitive model capturing the interplay between economic activity, physical power consumption, depletion and energy quality is presented.
The use of renewable energy sources is a major strategy to mitigate climate change. Yet Sinn (2017) argues that excessive electrical storage requirements limit the further expansion of variable wind and solar energy. We question, and alter,…
The extension of thermodynamic principles to active matter remains a challenge due to the non-equilibrium nature inherent to active systems. In this study, we introduce a framework to assess entropy in our minimal macroscopic experiment…
This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about adiabatic…
Heat dissipation is one of the most serious problems in modern integrated electronics with the continuously decreasing devices size. Large portion of the consumed power is inevitably dissipated in the form of waste heat which not only…
The physical foundations of a variety of emerging technologies --- ranging from the applications of quantum entanglement in quantum information to the applications of nonequilibrium bulk and interface phenomena in microfluidics, biology,…
We develop an analogy between fluids and black holes to study phase transitions in the latter. The entropy-temperature graph shows the onset of a phase transition without any latent heat. The nature of this continuous (higher order) phase…
The hotness of the sun and the coldness of the outer space are inexhaustible thermodynamic resources for human beings. From a thermodynamic point of view, any energy conversion systems that receive energy from the sun and/or dissipate…
In this article we shall discuss the development of electrical storage system. Since the early days of electricity people have tried various methods to store electricity. One of the earliest device was a simple electrostatic capacitor that…