MAXIMUM WORK OF RELAXING SYSTEMS
RECOVERABLE IN A FINITE TIME

A. I. Shnip

UDC 536.7

The problem on minimization of the thermodynamic action 
performed by a linear relaxing thermodynamic system from an arbitrary 
nonequilibrium state on a finite time interval has been solved. In 
specific applications, this problem solves that on the maximum mechanical 
or electric energy (work) which can be recovered in a finite time 
interval from such systems as a viscoelastic body, electric RC and 
LC circuits, an ideal gas with relaxation, and others in an arbitrary 
nonequilibrium initial state.

A. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute, National 
Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 15 P. Brovka Str., Minsk, 220072, 
Belarus. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 78, 
No. 6, pp. 3-13, November-December, 2005. Original article 
submitted September 28, 2004.