THERMODYNAMICS WITH INTERNAL VARIABLES .1. APPLICATIONS

The second part of this synthetic work presents and discusses the most spectacular and successful applications of the irreversible thermodyn amics with internal variables. These include viscosity in both fluids and solids (in the former case, in complex fluids and structurally com plex flows), viscoplasticity and rate-independent plasticity in small and finite strains, damage and cyclic plasticity, electric and magneti c relaxation, magnetic and electric hysteresis, normal and semi-conduc tion, superconductivity of deformable solids, and ferrofluids. In all cases the internal variables of interest are given some physical signi ficance in terms of quantities defined at a sublevel of description. T he relevant internal variables may be as varied as second-order tensor s, real or complex valued scalars, and polar or axial vectors. Further more, the role played by internal variables in wave-propagation proble ms is emphasized through appropriate examples. The presentation ends w ith reaction-diffusion problems. This is illustrated by damage, plasti c-strain localization and models for nerve-pulse dynamics. Globally, w e have all ingredients of a truly post-Duhemian irreversible thermodyn amics of complex behaviors.