Tailoring the first law of thermodynamics for convective flows

Equilibrium thermodynamics is grounded in the law of energy conservation, with a specific focus on how systems exchange energy with their environment during transitions between equilibrium states. These transitions are typically characterized by quantities such as heat absorption and the work needed to alter the system's volume. This study is inspired by the potential to develop an analogous, straightforward thermodynamic description for systems that are out of equilibrium. Here, we explore the global energy exchanges that occur during transitions between these nonequilibrium states. We study a system with heat flow and an external (gravity) field that exhibits macroscopic motion, such as Rayleigh–Bénard convection. We show that the formula for system's energy exchange has the same form as in equilibrium. It opens the possibility of describing out-of-equilibrium systems using a few simple laws similar to equilibrium thermodynamics.