Fundamental Relation for Gas of Interacting Particles in a Heat Flow.

There is a long-standing question of whether it is possible to extend the formalism of equilibrium thermodynamics to the case of nonequilibrium systems in steady-states. We have made such an extension for an ideal gas in a heat flow. Here, we investigated whether such a description exists for the system with interactions: the van der Waals gas in a heat flow. We introduced a steady-state fundamental relation and the parameters of state, each associated with a single way of changing energy. The first law of nonequilibrium thermodynamics follows from these parameters. The internal energy U for the nonequilibrium states has the same form as in equilibrium thermodynamics. For the van der Waals gas, U (S * , V , N , a * , b *) is a function of only five parameters of state (irrespective of the number of parameters characterizing the boundary conditions): the effective entropy S * , volume V, number of particles N, and rescaled van der Waals parameters a * , b * . The state parameters, a * , b * , together with S * , determine the net heat exchange with the environment. The net heat differential does not have an integrating factor. As in equilibrium thermodynamics, the steady-state fundamental equation also leads to the thermodynamic Maxwell relations for measurable steady-state properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]