Zhang Yuwei, Kowalski Gregory J
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Entropy (Basel). 2022 Apr 16;24(4):561. doi: 10.3390/e24040561.
A description and examination of the potential for calorimetry for use in exploring the entropy flows in biological and or reacting systems is presented. A calorimeter operation background is provided, and two case studies are investigated using a transient numerical simulation. The first case describes a single cell calorimeter containing a single phase material excited by heat generation source function such as joule heating. The second case is a reacting system. The basic observation parameter, the temperature, cannot be used to separate the entropy property changes and the rate of entropy production in the second case. The calculated transient response can be further analyzed to determine the equilibrium constant once the reaction equation and stoichiometric constants are specified which allows entropy property changes and the rate of entropy production to be determined. In a biological community, the equivalent of the reaction equation and a definition of an equilibrium constant are not available for all systems. The results for the two cases illustrate that using calorimetry measurements to identify the entropy flows in biological community activities requires further work to establish a framework similar to that chemical reacting systems that are based on an equilibrium type parameter.
本文介绍了量热法在探索生物和/或反应系统中熵流方面的潜力，并对其进行了描述和研究。提供了量热计的操作背景，并通过瞬态数值模拟研究了两个案例。第一个案例描述了一个包含单相材料的单细胞量热计，该单相材料由诸如焦耳热等热源函数激发。第二个案例是一个反应系统。在第二个案例中，基本的观测参数——温度，无法用于区分熵性质的变化和熵产生的速率。一旦指定了反应方程式和化学计量常数，就可以进一步分析计算出的瞬态响应，以确定平衡常数，从而确定熵性质的变化和熵产生的速率。在生物群落中，并非所有系统都有等效的反应方程式和平衡常数的定义。这两个案例的结果表明，利用量热法测量来识别生物群落活动中的熵流，需要进一步开展工作，以建立一个类似于基于平衡型参数的化学反应系统的框架。
