The article surveys and extends variational formulations of the thermodynamic free energy and discusses their information-theoretic content from the perspective of mathematical statistics. We revisit the well-known Jarzynski equality for nonequilibrium free energy sampling within the framework of importance sampling and Girsanov change-of-measure transformations. The implications of the differe...

Phase stability (PS) problems play a crucial role in the simulation, design and optimization of separation process such as distillation and extraction. The problem involves the global minimization of tangent plane distance function (TPDF) known as tangent plane criterion. In this work, two promising global optimization techniques: differential evolution (DE) and tabu search (TS) have been evalu...

In the electrical machines, operated in railway traction drives, the growth of power density requires overproportional more heat to be discharged which leads to the need for more and more advanced cooling techniques. A novel optimization and evaluation approach for internal air cooled traction machines will be presented in this paper. It analyses and investigates the thermo-aeroand thermodynami...

Exergy analysis and response surface methodology (RSM) is applied to reduce the exergy loss and improve energy and exergy efficiency of acetic acid production plant. Exergy analysis is run as a thermodynamic tool to assess exergy loss in reactor and towers of acetic acid production process. The process is simulated in Aspen Plus(v.8.4) simulator and the necessary thermodynamics data for calcula...

Fifty years ago, the optimization of thermoelectric devices was analyzed by considering the relation between optimal performances and local entropy production. Entropy is produced by the irreversible processes in thermoelectric devices. If these processes could be eliminated, entropy production would be reduced to zero, and the limiting Carnot efficiency or coefficient of performance would be o...

Hydrofluorocarbons, currently used as refrigerants in air-conditioning systems, are potent greenhouse gases, and their contribution to climate change is projected to increase. Future use of the hydrofluorocarbons will be phased down and, thus replacement fluids must be found. Here we show that only a few pure fluids possess the combination of chemical, environmental, thermodynamic, and safety p...

We present a new approach to study the thermodynamic properties of d-dimensional classical systems by reducing the problem to the computation of ground state properties of a d-dimensional quantum model. This classical-to-quantum mapping allows us to deal with standard optimization methods, such as simulated and quantum annealing, on an equal basis. Consequently, we extend the quantum annealing ...

An efficient molecular motor would deliver cargo to the target site at a high speed and in a punctual manner while consuming a minimal amount of energy. According to a recently formulated thermodynamic principle, referred to as the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, the travel distance of a motor and its variance are, however, constrained by the free energy being consumed. Here we use the prin...

In this study, optimization of Qeshm power and water desalting cogeneration plant has been investigated. The objective functions are related to maximizing exergetic efficiency and minimization of exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental parameters. Also, the integration of RO desalination with the existing plant has been evaluated based on these analyses. This plant includes two MAPNA 25 MW gas t...

integrated energy systems utilizing renewable sources are sustainable and environmentally substitutes for conventional fossil-fired energy systems. a new multigeneration plant with two inputs, such as biomass and solar energy, and four useful outputs, such as cooling, heating, power, and distilled water, is presented and investigated in this paper. the proposed system includes evacuated tube so...