Finite physical Dimensions Optimal Thermodynamics (FDOT)

Phenomenological thermodynamics took off with the advent of thermomechanical machines: everyone remembers the name Sadi CARNOT. But for a long time, these were developments in equilibrium thermodynamics, with a few thermodynamic variants that took a long time to mature.

Since the 1980s, there has been a proliferation of new trends in thermodynamics, focusing on energy, the environment and the economy, and well integrated into the engineering world. There are also some more exotic, even fundamental concepts related to exergy, entropy or efficiency, but also to emergy, entransy or constructality.

The aim of this article is to take stock of these more or less recent concepts, offering the reader a number of possible applications, but also indicating the more fundamental consequences in terms of future developments. However, the main focus remains on the concept of efficiency and thermodynamics in finite physical dimensions TODF (FDOT in English).