Analysis of three nonlinear effects in a continuum approach to heat transport in nanosystems (Q453131)

This article presents an analysis of nonlinear effects in a continuum approach to heat transport in nanosystems based on the proposed generalized nonlinear evolution equation for the heat flux in three situations of physical interest, namely length dependence of the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes, heat rectification in troncoconical nanowires, and anomalies in the temperature profile in radial heat transport in thin layers or graphene sheets. The analysis examines a generalized equation which exhibits nonlinear effects in an explicit way. It refers not only to the relatively usual nonlinearities in which the thermal conductivity, or the specific heat, depends on temperature, but also to the terms in the heat-transport equation which are nonlinear in the heat flux itself. Also, some thermodynamic considerations allowing us to discuss the compatibility of this generalized equation with the second law of thermodynamics are presented.