Irreversibility and entropy production in transport phenomena, III—Principle of minimum integrated entropy production including nonlinear responses

A new variational principle of steady states is found by introducing an integrated type of energy dissipation (or entropy production) instead of instantaneous energy dissipation. This new principle is valid both in linear and nonlinear transport phenomena. Prigogine’s dream has now been realized by this new general principle of minimum “integrated” entropy production (or energy dissipation). This new principle does not contradict with the Onsager–Prigogine principle of minimum instantaneous entropy production in the linear regime, but it is conceptually different from the latter which does not hold in the nonlinear regime. Applications of this theory to electric conduction, heat conduction, particle diffusion and chemical reactions are presented.