IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v67y2000i1-2p37-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Constructal theory of economics

Author

Listed:
  • Bejan, A.
  • Badescu, V.
  • De Vos, A.

Abstract

This paper extends to economics of the constructal theory of generation of shape and structure in natural flow systems that connect one point to a finite size area or volume. By invoking the principle of cost minimization in the transport of goods between a point and an area, it is possible to anticipate the dendritic pattern of transport routes that cover the area, and the shapes and numbers of the interstitial areas of the dendrite. It is also shown that by maximizing the revenue in transactions between a point and an area, it is possible to derive not only the dendritic pattern of routes and their interstices, but also the optimal size of the smallest (elemental) interstitial area. Every geometric detail of the dendritic structures is the result of a single (deterministic) generating principle. The refining of the performance of a rough design (e.g. rectangles-in-a-rectangle) pushes the design towards a structure that resembles a theoretically fractal structure (triangle-in-triangle). The concluding section shows that the law of optimal refraction of transport routes is a manifestation of the same principle and can be used to optimize further the dendritic patterns. The chief conclusion is that the constructal law of physics has a powerful and established analogue in economics: the law of parsimony. The constructal theory, as extended in this paper, unites the naturally-organized flow structures that occur spontaneously over a vast territory, from geophysics to biology and economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Bejan, A. & Badescu, V. & De Vos, A., 2000. "Constructal theory of economics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(1-2), pages 37-60, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:67:y:2000:i:1-2:p:37-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-2619(00)00023-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abusoglu, Aysegul & Kanoglu, Mehmet, 2009. "Exergoeconomic analysis and optimization of combined heat and power production: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2295-2308, December.
    2. Wei, Shuhuan & Chen, Lingen & Sun, Fengrui, 2009. "The area-point constructal optimization for discrete variable cross-section conducting path," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(7-8), pages 1111-1118, July.
    3. Zhou, Shengbing & Chen, Lingen & Sun, Fengrui, 2007. "Optimization of constructal economics for volume-to-point transport," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(5), pages 505-511, May.
    4. Manjunath, K. & Kaushik, S.C., 2014. "Second law thermodynamic study of heat exchangers: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 348-374.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:67:y:2000:i:1-2:p:37-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.