Adrian Bejan &
Constructal Law

The constructal law, stated by Duke’s Adrian Bejan in 1996, is the law of physics that accounts for the phenomenon of evolution (configuration, form, design) throughout nature, inanimate flow systems and animate systems together

For a finite size flow system (not infinitesimal) to persist in time (to live) it must evolve with freedom such that it provides easier and greater access to what flows.

 Adrian Bejan The Constructal Law

The constructal law:

  • Places the concepts of life, evolution, freedom, form, configuration, directionality, and objective in physics, which is in the broadest scientific arena
  • Is the law of physics of life and evolution everywhere, animate, inanimate, human made, and not human made
  • It is the arrow of time, the direction of the evolution of flow organization

Videos:

Benjamin Franklin Medal 

Morgan Freeman: Through the Wormhole

Welcome to Evolution

YouTube Channel

Books:

Shape and Structure, from Engineering to Nature 2000

Design in Nature 2012

The Physics of Life 2016

Freedom and Evolution 2020

Time and Beauty 2022

Textbooks:

Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics 2016, 4th ed.

Convection Heat Transfer 2013, 4th ed.

Design with Constructal Theory 2008

Reviews:

The Constructal unification of biological and geophysical design, Physics of Life Reviews, 2009

Evolution in Thermodynamics, Applied Physics Reviews, 2017

The principle underlying all evolution, biological, geophysical, social and technological, Philosophical Transactions A, 2023

Evolution and irreversibility: Two distinct phenomena and their distinct laws of nature, Physics of Life Reviews, 2024

Energy Systems & Materials Research at Duke MEMS

Duke MEMS faculty are experts in developing new energy materials, improving energy-related technologies and exploring underlying chemistry and physics. The vision: a future with clean and abundant energy.

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