A thermodynamic hypothesis regarding optimality principles for flow processes in geosystems  

作　　者：Hui-Hai Liu 

机构地区：[1]Earth Sciences Division,Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,Berkeley,CA 94720,USA

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2014年第16期1880-1884,共5页

基　　金：supported by the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE),under DOE Contract No.DE-AC02-05CH11231

摘　　要：This paper proposes a new thermodynamic hypothesis that states that a nonlinear natural system that is not isolated and involves positive feedbacks tends to minimize its resistance to the flow process through it that is imposed by its environment.We demonstrate that the hypothesis is consistent with flow behavior in saturated and unsaturated porous media,river basins,and the Earthatmosphere system.While optimization for flow processes has been previously discussed by a number of researchers in the literature,the unique contribution of this work is to indicate that only the driving process is subject to optimality when multiple flow processes are simultaneously involved in a system.This paper proposes a new thermodynamic hypothesis that states that a nonlinear natural system that is not isolated and involves positive feedbacks tends to minimize its resistance to the flow process through it that is imposed by its environment. We demonstrate that the hypothesis is consistent with flow behavior in saturated and unsaturated porous media, river basins, and the Earth-atmosphere system. While optimization for flow processes has been previously discussed by a number of researchers in the literature, the unique contribution of this work is to indicate that only the driving process is subject to opti-mality when multiple flow processes are simultaneously involved in a system.

关 键 词：地球系统 流动过程 热力学 假说 饱和多孔介质 自然系统 江河流域 流动行为 

分 类 号：O414.1[理学—理论物理] X21[理学—物理]