Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics

With this chapter, we begin a panoramic overview of non-equilibrium thermodynamic theories that go beyond the local equilibrium hypothesis, which is the cornerstone of classical irreversible thermodynamics (CIT). We hope that this presentation, covering Chaps. 7–11, will convince the reader that non—equilibrium thermodynamics is a fully alive and modern field of research, combining practical motivations and conceptual questions. Indeed, such basic topics as the definition and meaning of temperature and entropy, the formulation of the second law, and its consequences on the admissible transport equations are still open questions nowadays.