Thermodynamics - An Introductory Treatise Dealing Mainly With First Principles and Their Direct Application #252271

Moreover the available energy method possesses considerable advantages in the treatment of thermodynamical equilibria. If we assume that in a state of equilibrium the available energy of a system is a minimum it follows immediately that the conditions of equilibrium can be deduced from the equations of reversible thermodynamics and that it is only when the stability of the equilibrium is discussed that recourse must be had to the inequalities of irreversible thermodynamics.