Entropy Generation in Multicomponent Reacting Flows

Abstract

A comprehensive equation to determine the rate of local entropy generation in multicomponent, reacting, laminar fluid flow involving heat and mass transfer is formulated based on species-average velocity in a multicomponent continuum. The entropy-generation equation developed in this study suggests that species diffusion induces a diffusive-viscous effect, heretofore not reported in the literature, which could contribute significantly to entropy generation in multicomponent fluid systems, and that entropy generation in a multicomponent system exceeds that in a single-component fluid system having similar velocity and temperature distributions because a greater number of irreversible processes, such as species diffusion, chemical reaction, and the Soret and Dufour effects, are involved. Under appropriate conditions, if the diffusive-viscous effect is neglected, the entropy-generation equation of this study reduces to those reported in the literature for simpler fluid systems based on mean flow.