In this note, we consider the problem of studying systems with a thermodynamic structure, i .e., generated by a potential (or a function of a given potential), where the potential contains perturbation components. The objective here is to study how robust thermodynamicbased approaches to study stability of an isolated equilibrium are when the generating potential are not well-known. Generally, through the proposed analysis, it is shown, for a particular class of problems, that general structural properties are preserved under perturbations, in particular the dissipative structure of a particular system identified through homotopy is preserved.
Hudon, N., GarcĂa-Sandoval, J. P., Hoang, N. H., & Dochain, D. (2016). Stability of perturbed thermodynamic systems. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49, 58-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.10.754 (Original work published 2016)