Entransy dissipation and irreversibility of some thermodynamic processes

The relationship between entransy dissipation and the irreversibility of some thermodynamic processes, such as heat transfer, work-heat conversion, free expansion, isothermal diffusion etc., are analyzed in this paper. The results show that there is entropy generation but no entransy dissipation in irreversible work-heat conversion, free expansion and isothermal diffusion. Therefore, entransy dissipation cannot be used to describe the irreversibility of these processes. Both entropy generation and entransy dissipation exist in heat transfer process, which indicates that the entransy dissipation can be used to describe the irreversibility of heat transfer processes. Furthermore, the irreversibility of endoreversible cycles is analyzed. As all the irreversibility in endoreversible cycles is attributed to heat transfer between the heat sources and the working medium, entransy dissipation can be used to describe the irreversibility of this kind of cycles. To verify this conclusion, numerical examples of the endoreversible Carnot cycle are discussed.