Comment on "A fallacious argument in the finite time thermodynamic concept of endoreversibility" [J. Appl. Phys. 83, 4561 (1998)]

In his paper D. P. Sekulic [J. Appl. Phys. 83, 4561 (1998)] advances a number of arguments about finite-time thermodynamics which call for refutation as well as comment. It provides an opportunity to put into print a clarification of just what finite-time thermodynamics is, what it is not, and how it is related to some of the other, parallel efforts in the treatment of irreversible systems and their performance. The two major points of the present comment are (i) finite-time thermodynamics is a general theory independent of the concept of endoreversibility, which was originally introduced only to generate simple examples, and (ii) the strict division between the system to be optimized and the given fixed surroundings is essential to a correct interpretation of the results. I will refrain from commenting on details in D. P. Sekulic [J. Appl. Phys. 83, 4561 (1998)] in order not to obscure these main points. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.