Thermodynamic optimization of mechanical systems with dissipative processes

A modelling of the mechanical systems with dissipative processes as thermodynamic systems has been performed in this article. On the basis of the Gouy–Stodola's theorem the entropy generation minimization method for thermodynamic optimization of these systems has been applied. The outcomes of a thermodynamic optimization of metal-forming processes and rotor brake systems have been shown. It has been proved that the generated entropy is a generalized optimization criterion for this kind of systems. The vector optimization criterion has been substituted by the generated entropy functional depending on the vector of controlling factors (process parameters). The generated entropy plays the role of a surrogate function of a feasible scalarized function, and therefore it is not necessary to scalarize the vector optimization criterion. The optimization is reduced to generated entropy minimization. The effectiveness of the latter approach has been proved.