Yuwen Zhang is an American professor of mechanical engineering who is well known for his contributions to phase change heat transfer. He is presently a Curators' Distinguished Professor and Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.
Education and career Yuwen Zhang earned his B.E. degree in thermal turbomachinery, M.E. and D.Eng. degrees in engineering thermophysics from Xi'an Jiaotong University, in 1985, 1988 and 1991, respectively. He taught at Xi'an Jiaotong University from 1991 to 1994 and was a research associate at Wright State University (1994-1995) and University of Connecticut (1995-1996). He received a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1998. He was a research scientist at University of Connecticut and a senior engineer at Thermoflow, Inc. before joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at New Mexico State University as an assistant professor in 2001. He joined the faculty at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri (MU) in 2003 as an associate professor and became a full professor in 2009. He was awarded a James C. Dowell Professorship in 2012 and served as the Department Chair from 2013 to 2017. He was named a Curators' Distinguished Professor in 2020Zhang Named Curators’ Distinguished Professor and a Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering in 2021.
Technical contributions
Yuwen Zhang's research area is in the field of heat and mass transfer with applications in nanomanufacturing, thermal management, and energy storage and conversion. He has published over 300 journal papers and more than 180 conference publications at national and international conferences. He has developed pioneer models for a latent heat thermal energy storage system,Zhang, Y., and Faghri, A., 1996, “Heat Transfer Enhancement in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System by Using the Internally Finned Tube,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 39(15), pp. 3165-3173. as well as multiscale, multiphysics models on additive manufacturing (AM), including selective laser sintering (SLS) Zhou, J., Zhang, Y., and Chen, J.K., 2009, “Numerical Simulation of Laser Irradiation to a Randomly Packed Bimodal Powder Bed,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 52(13-14), pp. 3137-3146. and laser chemical vapor deposition/infiltration (LCVD/LCVI).Zhang, Y., and Faghri, A., 2000, “Thermal Modeling of Selective Area Laser Deposition of Titanium Nitride on a Finite Slab with Stationary and Moving Laser Beams,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 43(20), pp. 3835-3846.Zhang, Y., 2006, “Nonequilibrium Modeling of Heat Transfer in a Gas-Saturated Powder Layer Subject to a Short-Pulsed Heat Source,” Numer. Heat Transfer, Part A, 50(6), pp. 509-524. He is the first to develop fundamental models of fluid flow and heat transfer in the oscillating heat pipes,Zhang, Y., and Faghri, A., 2002, “Heat Transfer in a Pulsating Heat Pipe with Open End,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 45(4), pp. 755-764.Zhang, Y., and Faghri, A., 2003, “Oscillatory Flow in Pulsating Heat Pipes with Arbitrary Numbers of Turns,” J. Thermophys. Heat Transfer, 17(3), pp. 340-347. which is a heat transfer device that can be used in thermal management of electronic devices and energy systems. He carried out theoretical studies on femtosecond laser interaction with metal and biological materials from molecular scales to system levels,Zhang, Y., and Chen, J.K., 2007, “Melting and Resolidification of Gold Film Irradiated by Nano- to Femtosecond Lasers,” Appl. Phys. A-Mater., 88(2), pp. 289-297.Afrin, N., Zhou, J., Zhang, Y., Tzou, D.Y., and J., Chen, J.K., 2012, “Numerical Simulation of Thermal Damage to Living Biological Tissues Induced by Laser Irradiation based on a Generalized Dual Phase Lag Model,” Numer. Heat Transfer, Part A, 61(7), pp. 483-501. and solved inverse heat transfer problems for the determination of the heating condition and/or temperature-dependent macro and micro thermophysical properties under uncertainty.Afrin, N., Zhang, Y., and Chen, J.K., 2016, “Uncertainty Analysis of Melting and Resolidification of Gold Film Irradiated by Nano- to Femtosecond Lasers Using Stochastic Method,” J. Heat Transfer, 138(6), p. 062301 He also investigated the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement in nanofluids, which are stable colloidal suspensions of solid nanomaterials with sizes typically on the order of 1-100 nm in the base fluid, via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.Li, L., Zhang, Y., Ma, H. B., and Yang, M., 2008, “An Investigation of Molecular Layering at the Liquid-Solid Interface in Nanofluids by Molecular Dynamics Simulation,” Phys. Lett. A, 372(25), pp. 4541–4544. Thermal management and temperature uniformity improvement of Li-ion batteries using external and internal cooling methods were also systematically studied by utilizing pin fin heat-sinks and metal/non-metal foams, as well as using electrolyte flow inside the embedded microchannels in the porous electrodes as a novel internal cooling technique.Mohammadian, S.K., and Zhang, Y., 2015, “Thermal Management Optimization of an Air-Cooled Li-ion Battery Module Using Pin-Fin Heat Sinks for Hybrid Electric Vehicles,” J. Power Sources, 273, pp. 431-439.Mohammadian, S.K., and Zhang, Y., 2018, “Improving Wettability and Preventing Li-Ion Batteries from Thermal Runaway Using Microchannels,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 118, pp. 911-918.
Professional services Yuwen Zhang is the Co-Editor-in-Chief for Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer (FHMT), Associate Editor for ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, as well as an editorial board member for eight other journals. As a Fellow of ASME, he was the Chair (2012-2014) and the Vice-Chair (2009-2012) of the K-15 Committee on Transport Phenomena in Manufacturing and Materials Processing of the ASME Heat Transfer Division. As an Associate Fellow of AIAA, he was a Member of the AIAA Thermophysics Technical Committee (2008–2011). He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In these capacities, he has served as congress, track, and session chair for numerous national and international conferences in engineering.
Honors and awards Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering, University of Missouri, 2021 Curators' Distinguished Professor, University of Missouri, 2020 Coulter Award, University of Missouri Coulter Translational Partnership Program, 2018University of Missouri Coulter Translational Partnership Program Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), 20152015 AAAS Fellows Recognized for Contributions to Advancing Science. James C. Dowell Professorship, University of Missouri, 2012 Certificate of Appreciation for Service as K-15 Committee Chair, ASME Heat Transfer Division, 2014 Certificate of Distinguished Service, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), 2011 Missouri Honor Senior Faculty Research Award, College of Engineering at the University of Missouri, 2010 Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, University of Missouri, 2010Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor receives Chancellor’s Award Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2007ASME Fellows. Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), 2008AIAA Associate Fellows Roster Faculty Fellow Award, College of Engineering at University of Missouri, 2007 Computational Research Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University, 2003 Young Investigator Award, Office of Naval Research (one of 26 awarded nationally in all fields), 2002ONR Announces Young Investigator Program Awards, Office of Naval Research, February 20, 2002.
Books Fundamentals of Multiphase Heat Transfer and Flow (with A. Faghri, 2020)Faghri, A., and Zhang, Y., 2020, Fundamentals of Multiphase Heat Transfer and Flow, , Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Advanced Heat and Mass Transfer (with A. Faghri and J. Howell, 2010)Faghri, A., Zhang, Y., and Howell, J., 2010, Advanced Heat and Mass Transfer, , Global Digital Press, Columbia, MO. Reviews: Transport Phenomena in Multiphase Systems (with A. Faghri, 2006)Faghri, A., and Zhang, Y., 2006, Transport Phenomena in Multiphase Systems, , Elsevier, Burlington, MA. Reviews:
Edited books Heat Pipes: Design, Applications and Technology (2018)Zhang, Y., ed., 2018, Heat Pipes: Design, Applications and Technology, , Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Hauppauge, NY. Multiscale Thermal Transport in Energy Systems (with Y. L. He, 2016)Zhang, Y., and He, Y.L., eds., 2016, Multiscale Thermal Transport in Energy Systems, , Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Hauppauge, NY. Femtosecond Lasers: New Research (2013)Zhang, Y., ed., 2013, Femtosecond Lasers: New Research, , Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Hauppauge, NY. Nanofluids: Research, Development and Applications (2013)Zhang, Y., ed., 2013, Nanofluids: Research, Development and Applications, , Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Hauppauge, NY.
References
External links
Biographical information at the University of Missouri