Thermodynamic Equilibria and Extrema

Principles of Equilibrium and Extremality in Mechanics and Thermodynamics.- Extreme Thermodynamic Models in Terms of Mathematical Programming.- Thermodynamic Modeling on Graphs.- Methods and Algorithms of Searching for Thermodynamic Equilibria.- Application of Extreme Models.

Offers a simple and efficient approach for the study of partial equilibria that occur en route to final equilibrium Allows readers to view the achievable set of partial equilibria with regards to constraints on kinetics, energy and mass exchange Examples in the text illustrate application of the suggested models in chemical technology, energy and ecology No other book addresses non-equilibrium and irreversible processes in terms of equilibrium thermodynamics

Alexander N. Gorban: Full Professor in Modeling & Simulation PhD in Physics & Math (Differential Equations & Math. Physics), 1980, Thesis: "Slow Relaxations and Bifurcations of Omega-Limit Sets of Dynamical Systems"; Dr Sc in Physics & Math (Biophysics), 1990, Thesis: "Extremal Principles and a priori Estimations in Biological and Formal Kinetics. Affiliation: Head of Nonequilibrium Systems Laboratory (1989 - present) and Deputy Director (1995 - present), Institute of Computational Modeling, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; Elected Chair of Applied Mathematics, University of Leicester, UK (2004). Part-time: Institute of Polymers, Polymer Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland (2003 - present); Head of Neurocomputers Chair, Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, Russia (1993 - present). Visiting: Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, USA), 03.2000-08.2000; Northeastern University (Boston, USA), 03.2000-05.2000; Courant Mathematics Institute (New York, USA), 04.2000; Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientiques (IHES, Paris, France), 10.2000-12.2000, 07.2001-08.2001,11.2002-12-2002, 09.2003; Scientific advisor of 22 PhD thesis and 3 Dr. Sc. Publications: 14 monographs, 4 patents, over 200 papers. Some of current research projects Constructive Methods of Invariant Manifolds for Kinetic Problems (1989-present); Cluster structure of Genome (2000-present); Molecular Individualism: Theory, computational models, applications (2003-present). Iliya Karlin obtained the doctral degree in physics in 1992 for his thesis "Methods of invariant manifolds in physical kinetics". During 1995-1997 he was the Humbold Fellow at the University of Ulm. He was visiting professor at the University of Rome during 1997-1998. At present he is affiliated as a senior scientist at the Swiss Federal institute of Technology (ETH), and as a senior researcher at the Institute of Computational Modeling of Russian Academy of Sciences. He authors about 100 papers on kinetic theory, polymer dynamics, chemical kinetics and computational fluid dynamics. His current research projects include constructive methods of invariant manifolds, theory of polymer dynamics and turbulence modeling.