arXiv subjects

Zhenlin Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhenlin Wang.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Intercalation driven porosity effects in coupled continuum models for the electrical, chemical, thermal and mechanical response of battery electrode materials

We present a coupled continuum formulation for the electrostatic, chemical, thermal and mechanical processes in battery materials. Our treatment applies on the macroscopic scale, at which electrodes can be modelled as porous materials made up of active particles held together by binders and perfused by the electrolyte. Starting with the description common to the field, in terms of reaction-transport partial differential equations for ions, variants of the classical Poisson equation for electrostatics, and the heat equation, we add mechanics to the problem. Our main contribution is to model the evolution of porosity as a consequence of strains induced by intercalation, thermal expansion and mechanical stresses. Recognizing the potential for large local deformations, we have settled on the finite strain framework. We present a detailed computational study of the influence of the dynamically evolving porosity, upon ion distribution, electrostatic potential fields, charge-discharge cycles and mechanical force generated in the cell.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Parallel Level set algorithm with MPI and accelerated on GPU

Level set method has been used to capture interface motion. Narrow band algorithm is applied to localize the solving of level-set PDE on global domain to a tube around interface. Due to the unknown evolving interface, narrow band algorithm brings load balance problem for parallelizing computing. This work presents a tool for evenly distributing work loads on CPUs. On the other hand, numerically solving level-set PDE only needs simple operations but on large grid points. This work also presents a GPU acceleration for solving level-set PDE using finite difference method.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2016

Gate-Tunable Negative Longitudinal Magnetoresistance in the Predicted Type-II Weyl Semimetal WTe2

The progress in exploiting new electronic materials and devices has been a major driving force in solid-state physics. As a new state of matter, a Weyl semimetal (WSM), particularly a type-II WSM, hosts Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles and may harbor novel electrical transport properties because of the exotic Fermi surface. Nevertheless, such a type-II WSM material has not been experimentally observed in nature. In this work, by performing systematic magneto-transport studies on thin films of a predicted material candidate WTe2, we observe notable angle-sensitive (between the electric and magnetic fields) negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (MR), which can likely be attributed to the chiral anomaly in WSM. This phenomenon also exhibits strong planar orientation dependence with the absence of negative longitudinal MR along the tungsten chains (a axis), which is consistent with the distinctive feature of a type-II WSM. By applying a gate voltage, we demonstrate that the Fermi energy can be tuned through the Weyl points via the electric field effect; this is the first report of controlling the unique transport properties in situ in a WSM system. Our results have important implications for investigating simulated quantum field theory in solid-state systems and may open opportunities for implementing new types of electronic applications, such as field-effect chiral electronic devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

A three dimensional field formulation, and isogeometric solutions to point and line defects using Toupin's theory of gradient elasticity at finite strains

We present a field formulation for defects that draws from the classical representation of the cores as force dipoles. We write these dipoles as singular distributions. Exploiting the key insight that the variational setting is the only appropriate one for the theory of distributions, we arrive at universally applicable weak forms for defects in nonlinear elasticity. Remarkably, the standard, Galerkin finite element method yields numerical solutions for the elastic fields of defects that, when parameterized suitably, match very well with classical, linearized elasticity solutions. The true potential of our approach, however, lies in its easy extension to generate solutions to elastic fields of defects in the regime of nonlinear elasticity, and even more notably for Toupin's theory of gradient elasticity at finite strains(Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal., 11, 385, 1962). In computing these solutions we adopt recent numerical work on an isogeometric analytic framework that enabled the first three-dimensional solutions to general boundary value problems of Toupin's theory (Rudraraju et al. Comp. Meth. App. Mech. Engr., 278, 705, 2014). We first present exhaustive solutions to point defects, edge and screw dislocations, and a study on the energetics of interacting dislocations. Then, to demonstrate the generality and potential of our treatment, we apply it to other complex dislocation configurations, including loops and low-angle grain boundaries.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗