The Fundamental Basis for Fiber Formation and Fiber Structure

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The basic fiber-forming process is treated as a dissipative process in which the structures formed depend upon both the stochastic nature of the fluctuation that initiates the process and the minimum dissipation of energy that determines its path. In contrast with equilibrium structures, which are homogeneous and unlimited in size, dissipative structures are inhomogeneous and have characteristic sizes. Such structures are formed when a steady-state irreversible process far from equilibrium becomes unstable to a space-dependent fluctuation. In effect, an inhomogeneous structure becomes a more efficient means of storing the excess energy--given quantitatively by the temperature times the entropy production. What would appear to be a highly improbable molecular arrangement accord ing to equilibrium thermodynamics becomes the arrangement that minimizes the dissipation of energy as well as the thermodynamic forces on the system.