Variational formulation of nonequilibrium thermodynamics for hydrodynamic pattern formations

It is shown that a direct extension of the variational principle of near-equilibrium states due to Onsager leads to the analogous principle in hydrodynamic flows; the entropy production rate of an isolated system is maximized both near and far from equilibrium. It possesses as its extremal paths the solutions to the hydrodynamic equation of motion, and provides a general pattern selection criterion far from equilibrium.