Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Complex Fluid Dynamics
Summary
Nonequilibrium thermodynamics extends classical equilibrium concepts to systems driven by gradients of temperature, chemical potential or mechanical forces, providing a quantitative framework for irreversible processes and entropy production. When coupled with complex fluid dynamics, it addresses materials whose microstructure or internal degrees of freedom give rise to non-Newtonian behaviour, viscoelastic response and anomalous transport. Such fluids—ranging from polymer solutions and colloidal suspensions to active biological gels—exhibit rich coupling between flow, stress and configurational variables. Modern approaches combine multiscale modelling, fluctuation theories and variational principles to derive constitutive equations that honour both conservation laws and the second law of thermodynamics. These advances underpin applications in energy conversion, microfluidics, soft robotics and biomedical engineering, where control of flow-induced phase transitions, stress relaxation and nonlocal transport is essential.
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Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Complex Fluid Dynamics publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and complex fluid dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Nonequilibrium thermodynamics: The study of systems driven away from thermodynamic equilibrium by external forces or gradients, focusing on irreversible processes and entropy production.
GENERIC framework: A formalism (General Equation for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling) that unifies reversible Hamiltonian mechanics with irreversible dissipation under a single set of evolution equations.
Langevin equation: A stochastic differential equation describing the motion of particles in a fluid, incorporating systematic forces, random fluctuations and memory effects.
Viscoelastic fluid: A material exhibiting both viscous flow and elastic stress storage due to internal microstructure, leading to time-dependent relaxation and non-Newtonian rheology.
Fluctuation–dissipation relation: A principle linking the response of a system to perturbations with the spectrum of its spontaneous fluctuations in thermal equilibrium, extended in nonequilibrium contexts.
References
- Nonequilibrium solvent response force: What happens if you push a Brownian particle. Physical Review Research (2024).
- Hamiltonian structure of 2D fluid dynamics with broken parity. SciPost Physics (2023).
- GENERIC framework for reactive fluid flows. ZAMM ‐ Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics / Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (2022).
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