INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCHInt. J. Energy Res. 2005; 29:557Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/er.1093

Foreword

Thermodynamic optimization and constructal design

This special issue focuses for the first time on a new development in thermodynamic analysisand optimization: the constructal method and the universal process of the generation of energysystem configuration.

Why is the generation of configuration important, and why focusing on it is new in science?We all learn that modern thermodynamics grew out of Sadi Carnot’s contemplation of thefunctioning of fire-driven engines. The first law and the second law allow us to analyse andpredict how a given heat engine will perform. This is powerful science; however, the world offlow systems (heat engines, animals, global circulation, etc.) shows that the performance of suchsystems increases in time. The first law and the second law are not enough.

Performance increases because one flow configuration morphs into, or is replaced by a newconfiguration that performs better. This parade of better and better drawings is as much a partof physics as the conservation of energy (first law) and the fact that all things flow from high tolow (second law). The principle that accounts for this universal tendency of flow systems in timeis the constructal law, which was stated in 1996: for a finite-size flow system to persist in time (tolive) it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to its currents.

The generation of flow configuration in accordance with the constructal law is constructaldesign. The thought that the self-organized and self-optimized flow structures of nature (animateand inanimate) can be reasoned based on the constructal law is constructal theory. The generationof flow configuration belongs in thermodynamics, because starting with the fire-driven engine andending with geophysical flows and living systems, the generation of flow configuration completesthe deterministic edifice that until now rested on only two legs, the first law and the second law.

Yildiz Technical University of Istanbul had the vision to organize the first school that taughtthis new, enlarged thermodynamics: The International Summer School of ThermodynamicOptimization and Constructal Design, 19–23 July 2004. Well-known professors were invited tolecture to an international audience of researchers from academia and industry. The lecturerswere Profs. A. Bejan, I. Dincer, Y. Gogus, A. Hepbasli, H. Heperkan, U. Kesgin, S. Lorente,S. Onbasioglu, A. Ozturk and E. Sciubba. This special issue puts on display the mostrepresentative lecture material presented at the summer school. We hope that this historicspecial issue will serve as a guide for future advances in thermodynamics and constructal design.

Adrian Bejan

Duke University, Durham, NC, USAHasan Heperkan

Yildiz Technical University,Istanbul, TurkeyUgur Kesgin

Yildiz Technical University,Istanbul, Turkey

Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.