Identical thermodynamical processes and the generalization of the Clausius inequality

Abstract

We stress the advantages of heat and work reservoirs in the formalism of Thermodynamics and using an illustrative example show the need to reformulate the concepts of heat and work to avoid inconsistencies, namely, with regard to the Second Law. To deal with this problem, we use the concept of identical thermodynamical processes and obtain the condition for two such processes to be identical even when the system neighbourhood as a whole cannot be treated as a reservoir. The aforementioned concept is then applied to obtain a standardized definition of heat and work as well as a generalization of the well-known Clausius inequality. Finally, we return to the example given earlier to corroborate the effectiveness of our results.PACS Nos.: 05.70.–a, 44.90.+c, 65.40.Gr