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Concept
Thermodynamic process
Summary
Classical thermodynamics considers three main kinds of thermodynamic process: (1) changes in a system, (2) cycles in a system, and (3) flow processes.
(1)A Thermodynamic process is a process in which the thermodynamic state of a system is changed. A change in a system is defined by a passage from an initial to a final state of thermodynamic equilibrium. In classical thermodynamics, the actual course of the process is not the primary concern, and often is ignored. A state of thermodynamic equilibrium endures unchangingly unless it is interrupted by a thermodynamic operation that initiates a thermodynamic process. The equilibrium states are each respectively fully specified by a suitable set of thermodynamic state variables, that depend only on the current state of the system, not on the path taken by the processes that produce the state. In general, during the actual course of a thermodynamic process, the system may pass through physical states which are not describable as thermodynamic states, because they are far from internal thermodynamic equilibrium. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, however, considers processes in which the states of the system are close to thermodynamic equilibrium, and aims to describe the continuous passage along the path, at definite rates of progress.
As a useful theoretical but not actually physically realizable limiting case, a process may be imagined to take place practically infinitely slowly or smoothly enough to allow it to be described by a continuous path of equilibrium thermodynamic states, when it is called a "quasi-static" process. This is a theoretical exercise in differential geometry, as opposed to a description of an actually possible physical process; in this idealized case, the calculation may be exact.
A really possible or actual thermodynamic process, considered closely, involves friction. This contrasts with theoretically idealized, imagined, or limiting, but not actually possible, quasi-static processes which may occur with a theoretical slowness that avoids friction.
Official source
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