Transport Phenomena in Thermal Engineering. Volume 2

ISBN Print: 1-56700-015-0

ENTROPY: AN EXTRAPHYSICAL PRACTICAL APPLICATION (AN ENTROPIC INDEX FOR THE STATE OF DEVELOPMENT OF A TECHNICAL PROJECT)

DOI: 10.1615/ISTP-VI.1170
pages 1494-1499

Abstract

The quantity Entropy set foot into the thermodynamics' scene with a considerable analytical connotation. At its appearance, indeed, it was considered as an algorithm capable of making exact the pfaffian differential of thermal energy.
Nevertheless, it was not late in evolving as a physical parameter having enormous significance in the formulation of the second law of thermodynamics.
Through Shannon and Weaver's information theory, entropy extended its sphere of influence towards extraphysical applications (from the simple theory of traffic to art, from biological evolution up to the transcendancy of the origin and death of the Universe).
In the present paper an application of entropy to a practical case shall be presented. It is technically interesting and concerns the definition and working out of an index that quantifies the state or level of a technical project. This will be based on the decreasing rate of overall entropy of the elapsing plan.
Moreover, an analytical procedure shall be attempted, for the optimization of the project advancement steps. The procedure is deterministic and is based on the variational calculus. The functional to be minimized is, precisely, the total entropy of the system. It depends upon some proper functional parameters relating to every single sector of the elapsing project.