30     Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics and Transport Phenomena 
The general method for describing an out-of-equilibrium system involves 
considering the system 
as a collection of sub-systems, each of which is in a state of 
equilibrium 
and which can thus be described by means of their extensive variables. 
We suppose (postulate) that such a procedure is always possible. 
As the system is no longer in equilibrium, exchanges occur between the 
extensive variables of the various sub-systems, and the intensity of these exchanges 
must be characterized. It is now essential that time be homogenous, in other words, 
for an out-of-equilibrium system whose characteristics do not change, the amounts 
of quantities exchanged must be proportional to the duration of the transfers. At this 
point, it is sufficient to consider continuous matter at rest, i.e. in a fixed reference 
frame. 
1.4.2. Discontinuous systems 
1.4.2.1. General principles 
A real system nearly always comprises a continuous variation of its physical 
properties. We therefore represent the latter using piecewise constant functions 
defined on a partition of the system in 
P  sub-systems, each of which is 
approximately in a state of equilibrium
,  and to which we can therefore apply the 
properties of systems in equilibrium. Let 
k be the number of independent extensive 
variables required for a description of each sub-system (number of moles, volume, 
energy, entropy, etc.) in terms of an energetic or entropic representation. 
A 
knowledge of the state of the system S requires a complete description of the P 
sub-systems, i.e. a total of 
kP variables. As seen earlier, certain extensive variables 
can be replaced by their corresponding intensive variables, which are defined for 
each sub-system as a result of the hypothesis that these sub-systems are in a state of 
equilibrium. This of course does not change the total number of independent 
variables, 
kP. For each sub-system p, we have the entropic form of the general 
equation of state (the energy of each sub-system, which is not individualized here, is 
included in the variables 
X
i
): 
kiPpXSS
ippp
,...,1;,...,1    
 
where 
X
ip
 designates the extensive quantity X
i
 contained in the sub-system p. 
The 
extensive quantities of the complete system can be obtained by adding the 
corresponding extensive quantities of the sub-systems: 
),...,1(;
11
PpXSSXX
P
p
ipp
P
p
ipi
   
¦¦