Abstract
This paper deals with the nonlinearity of a class of idealized thermodynamic systems, such as electrical resistors and semiconductor junction diodes, in which energy is dissipated when the flow of an extensive quantity takes place through them, and the extensive variable is not stored in the system. A thermodynamic model of such a system is constructed by representing it as a weak coupling between two storage systems described by a Master equation. The lowest-order dimensionless measure of nonlinearity, defined as the second derivative of the force variable with respect to the flow, normalized with respect to the flow and the first derivative, is shown to have a lower bound of −2. The proof is based on the assumptions that the force and flow variables are functionally related, and the system is homogeneous, stable, and has a single flow in it.
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