Global and local thermodynamic stability (Q881394)

An attempt to relate the local dynamics of the stability and the global behavior of thermodynamic stability is presented through the study of the heat conduction in an infinite unidimensional solid bar. The problem is solved analytically in order to conclude that the structures are independent of the sign of the perturbation and the show that the global stability can be understood in terms of the local dynamics. Yet, in this example the contribution of the additional nonlinear term is not very important. The author expects the derivation of global behavior of the stability in terms of the local dynamics in more complex coherent structures.