Related content

• Caloric
• Caloric theory
• Fourier's law
• Mass-energy equivalence
• Thermomass Theory

Thermomass Theory

Thermomass is defined as the equivalent mass of the thermal energy in heat transfer, which is determined by the Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence. The Thermomass theory, proposed by Prof. Zeng-Yuan Guo, regards heat owning the mass-energy duality, which exhibits energy-like features in conversion processes or mass-like characteristics in transfer processes. The mass of heat therefore leads to the “inertia” and “weight” of heat in heat transfer. Because the mass of heat is extremely small (10^{-16} kg for 1 J heat), it has been seldom measured but may show its significance in ultrafast heating or ultrahigh-rate heat transfer processes. Distinguished from the traditional Caloric theory which treats heat as substance without mass, the thermomass theory treats heat as a flux of substance with mass.

Based on the thermomass theory, a thermomass gas model has been developed. In this model, the heat transfer process can be treated as a thermomass gas flow in medium, driven by a thermomass pressure gradient (a potential field). The thermomass gas is a gas-like collection of massive thermons, which is defined as a unit quasi-particle carrying the thermal energy. For solids, the thermomass gas will be the phonon gas for crystals, attached on the electron gas for pure metals, or just between both for most of other solids. To concern the heat transfer behavior in medium, we only focus on the macroscopic flow characteristics of the thermomass gas rather than the details of each single thermon, and therefore we suppose the thermomass gas as a continuum and its transport process can be described by the classical Newton’s mechanics.