Diffusive Bejan number and second law of thermodynamics toward a new dimensionless formulation of fluid dynamics laws

Abstract

In a recent paper, Liversage and Trancossi have defined a new formulation of drag as a function of the dimensionless Bejan and Reynolds numbers. Further analysis of this hypothesis has permitted to obtain a new dimensionless formulation of the fundamental equations of fluid dynamics in their integral form. The resulting equations have been deeply discussed for the thermodynamic definition of Bejan number evidencing that the proposed formulation allows solving fluid dynamic problems in terms of entropy generation, allowing an effective optimization of design in terms of the Second law of thermodynamics. Some samples are discussed evidencing how the new formulation can support the generation of an optimized configuration of fluidic devices and that the optimized configurations allow minimizing the entropy generation.