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Weijia Wen

Publications and source records attributed to Weijia Wen.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Hybrid approach to high-frequency microfluidic mixing.

We report the experimental verification of the predicted chaotic mixing characteristics for a polydimethylsioxane microfluidic chip, based on the mechanism of multistage cross-channel flows. While chaotic mixing can be achieved within short passage distances, there is an optimal side channel flow pulsation frequency beyond which the mixing becomes ineffective. Based on the physical understanding of a Poincaré section analysis, we propose the installation of passive flow baffles in the main microfluidic channel to facilitate high-frequency mixing. The combined hybrid approach enables chaotic mixing at enhanced frequency and reduced passage distance in two-dimensional flows.

Journal Article↗

Effective mass density of fluid-solid composites.

We show through rigorous derivation and experimental support that the dynamic effective mass density of an inhomogeneous mixture, used in the prediction of wave velocities in the long wavelength limit, can differ from the static version--the volume average of the component mass densities. The physical reason for this difference is explained. The dynamic mass density expression, first derived by Berryman more than two decades ago, is shown to give a closer correspondence between the acoustic and electromagnetic metamaterials by allowing for negative mass densities at frequencies around resonances.

Journal Article↗

The giant electrorheological effect in suspensions of nanoparticles.

Electrorheology (ER) denotes the control of a material's flow properties (rheology) through an electric field. We have fabricated electrorheological suspensions of coated nanoparticles that show electrically controllable liquid-solid transitions. The solid state can reach a yield strength of 130 kPa, breaking the theoretical upper bound on conventional ER static yield stress that is derived on the general assumption that the dielectric and conductive responses of the component materials are linear. In this giant electrorheological (GER) effect, the static yield stress displays near-linear dependence on the electric field, in contrast to the quadratic variation usually observed. Our GER suspensions show low current density over a wide temperature range of 10-120 degrees C, with a reversible response time of <10 ms. Finite-element simulations, based on the model of saturation surface polarization in the contact regions of neighbouring particles, yield predictions in excellent agreement with experiment.

Barium Compounds↗

Optical nonlinearity of nanocrystalline Au/ZnO composite films.

The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities, chi(3), of composite films consisting of nanocrystalline Au and ZnO particles were investigated by use of a degenerate four-wave mixing scheme. The maximum value of chi(3), measured at a laser wavelength of 532 nm and a pulse duration of 70 ps, was approximately 2 x 10(-6) esu. Also, this chi(3) value was achieved with small absorption (the surface-plasmon peak was at the 615-nm wavelength). Our composite materials showed no discernible degradation after they were subjected to irradiation for a total of 3 x 10(7) high-intensity pulses (24 Mw/cm2, 70-ps pulse duration at 500 Hz) during 16 h of testing.

Journal Article↗

Subwavelength photonic band gaps from planar fractals.

We show by both experiment and theory that a specific class of planar conducting fractals possesses a series of self-similar resonances, leading to multiple gaps and pass bands for electromagnetic waves over an ultrawide frequency range. A double stack of these fractal patterns exhibits polarization-independent absolute gaps over a wide range of incidence angles. These characteristics are retained even when the fractal patterns are significantly subwavelength in all dimensions. In addition, the transmittance can be modulated by an external current source.

Journal Article↗