Thermodynamic Modeling of Interconnected Systems: Conservative Coupling

In this paper we extend results of Wyatt, Siebert and Tan by deriving an energy flow model in terms of thermodynamic energy rather than stored energy as in the standard Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) approach to energy flow modeling. This modified energy flow model shows that energy flows according to thermodynamic energy and that this property holds for an arbitrary number of nonidentical subsystems independently of the strength of the coupling. These results are compared with SEA by means of illustrative examples.