From virtual work principle to maximum entropy for nonequilibrium system

Abstract

After the justification of the maximum entropy approach for equilibrium thermodynamic system, and of a maximum path entropy algorithm for nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems by virtue of the principle of virtual work, we present in this paper another application of the principle to thermodynamic systems out of equilibrium. Unlike the justification of maximum path entropy for the motion trajectories during a period of time, this work is on the maximum of the entropy defined as a measure of the momentary dynamical uncertainty as a function of the probability distribution over the microstates of the system at any given moment.