This monograph presents, from the viewpoint of continuum mechanics, an emerging field of irreversible thermodynamics, in which linear irreversible thermodynamics are extended to the nonlinear regime and macroscopic phenomena far removed from equilibrium are studied in a manner consistent with the laws of thermodynamics. The tool to develop this thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes is generalized thermodynamics, which also extends the classical hydrodynamics of Navier, Stokes and Fourier to nonlinear irreversible processes.
The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics.- The First Law of Thermodynamics.- The Second Law of Thermodynamics.- Thermodynamics of Global Irreversible Processes.- Conservation Laws and Evolution Equations.- Local Form of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.- Local Irreversible Thermodynamics.- Thermodynamics of Linear Irreversible Processes.- Irreversible Thermodynamics of Steady States.- Variational Principles.- Contact Form in Thermodynamics.