Mathematical modelling of dissipative processes

Prof. K. R. Rajagopal
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Texas A & M University
College Station, TX  77843

Date:  Friday, December 6, 2002
Time:  3:30 p.m.
Place:  110 Othmer Hall


Different dissipative processes such as twinning, solid to solid phase transitions, deformations of crystals due to slip, crystallization of  polymers, scission and healing in multi-network polymers, flows of anisotropic liquids, growth and adaptation of biomaterials, etc., are usually described in terms of different theories. Such theories do not exploit the fact that while such dissipative processes are different in important aspects, they also share many features in general. A central idea in common in all these processes is that during the process the natural configurations of the body in question, changes. Here, I present a general thermodynamic framework that takes into account how the material stores energy, dissipates energy, produces entropy, etc., and how the changes in the natural configurations for the different phenomena given above are related to the rate of entropy production during these processes. This framework has been used to describe all the above dissipative processes, and it is able to explain them reasonably well. Here, I shall discuss in some detail status the crystallization of polymers within the context of the general framework.