A general theory for coupled chemo-electro-thermo-mechanical heterogeneous system

Abstract

Many transport and rate processes in chemical, physical, mineral, material and biological fields are controlled by the coupled chemo-electro-thermo-mechanical (CETM) process. Though many literatures discussed these coupled problems, but a unified rigorous theory and a unified method based on the chemical thermodynamics are lacked. In this paper on the basis of electrochemistry, the non-equilibrium thermodynamics and modern continuum mechanics we modify some previous theories and give a general theory including mass conservation equation, the electric charge conservation equation, complete energy conservation equation, entropy equation, evolution equations and the complete governing equations of these couple CETM systems. An extension of Nernst-Planck equation is derived for the CETM system. This theory gives a theoretical foundation and a universal method to improve and develop engineering theories, especially for the gradual failure components and cells. In appendix we also discuss the interdiffusion problems in solids with vacancies shortly as a complement of the continuum diffusion.