Energy dissipation and stability of propagating surfaces

Thermodynamic equilibrium states are given by the minimum of a convex free energy function with suitable boundary conditions. Nonconvexity may lead to the coexistence of several phases and the classical Gibbs phase rule allows constructing their equilibrium properties (e.g., density or pressure). Within the framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, the maximization of energy dissipation (under suitable boundary conditions) can be used as an extremal principle to find stationary states. We show that stationary states generally exist for convex energy dissipation functions and that nonconvexity leads to metastable and unstable states. A geometric argument, similar in spirit to Gibbs' double-tangent construction, yields the stability limits of stationary states. This argument is applied to study a classical problem of materials science, namely the motion of a grain boundary under the influence of solute drag.