Higher order terms in extended thermodynamics (Q1389969)

This paper is devoted to extended thermodynamics, i.e. the phenomenological thermodynamics where momentum and energy flux are viewed as additional dependent field variables, following a scheme introduced by I. Müller and others. In the application of this scheme general physical principles such as material objectivity and the entropy principle are duly implemented. The paper examines the consequences of this strategy when the entropy principle is applied up to the fourth order. The implications of constitutive functions up to that order on lower-order contributions are studied. It is shown after somewhat lengthy calculations that constraints thus placed on the lower-order terms are identically satisfied. This seems to justify the working hypothesis that when the entropy principle is imposed even on higher-order terms, then the lower-order terms are not disturbed. The computations are made only for a classical gas.