Finite-time Thermodynamics and Simulated Annealing

Finite-time thermodynamics is the extension of traditional reversible thermodynamics to include the extra requirement that the process in question goes to completion in a specified finite length of time. As such it is by definition a branch of irreversible thermodynamics, but unlike most other versions of irreversible thermodynamics, finite-time thermodynamics does not require or assume any knowledge about the microscopics of the processes, since the irreversibilities are described by macroscopic constants such as friction coefficients, heat conductances, reaction rates and the like. Some concepts of reversible thermodynamics, such as potentials and availability, generalize nicely to finite time, others are completely new, e.g. endoreversibility and thermodynamic length. The basic ideas of finite-time thermodynamics are reviewed and several of its procedures presented, emphasizing the importance of power. The global optimization algorithm simulated annealing was designed for extremely large and complicated systems and therefore inspired by analogy to statistical mechanics. Its basic version is outlined, and several notions from finite-time thermodynamics are introduced to improve its performance. Among these are an optimal temperature path, the use of ensembles, and an analytic two-state model with Arrhenius kinetics.