Career Interest

Education

• PhD in Engineering Mechanics minor in Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Florida 2003.
  
• MS in Engineering Mechanics University of Florida 2001.
  
• MS in Computational Mechanics Huazhong University of Sci. & Tech. Wuhan, China 1993.
  
• BS in Engineering Mechanics Huazhong University of Sci. & Tech. Wuhan, China 1990.
  

Skills

• Numerical methods:
  Finite Element (15+ years), Finite Difference (5 years), Boundary Element , Meshless
  
• Tools:
  MATLAB, ANSYS, OPERA 3d, SABER, MAXWELL, ABAQUS, IDEAS, AUTOCAD
  
• Languages:
  FORTRAN, C++, MATLAB, SABER
  

Employment

• Engineering Consultant, 2009 - present
  Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
• Assistant Scientist, 2006 - present
  Magnet Science and Technology, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
• Research Associate, 2003 - 2006
  Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
• Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant,1998 - 2003
  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida.
• Civil Engineer, 1993 - 1998
  North China Electronic Power Design Institute (NCEPDI), Beijing, China.

Past Projects

• Model-order reduction for efficient simulation of nonlinear electro-magneto-thermal coupled problems. PhD dissertation. 99 - 03.
  Developed model-order reduction techniques for efficient simulation of electro-magneto-thermal coupled problems for power magnetic components with frequency and temperature dependent hysteresis.
  
• Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) projects. Lockheed-Martin. 01 - 02.
  Assistant in coaching a team of multidisciplinary undergraduate students in using nonlinear finite-element code ABAQUS to model advanced micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device.
  
• Model reduction techniques for MEMS simulations. DARPA composite CAD program. 98 - 00.
  Developed efficient model reduction sofware using FORTRAN based on the Lanczos's method and WYD method in structural dynamics for commercial CFDRC code.
  
• Gaojing power plant reconstruction project (60 MW). 96 - 98. Beijing, China.
  
• Qinhuangdao power plant project (60 MW). 93 - 95. Hubei, China.
  
• Hybrid semi-loof shallow shell element for stress analysis of plates and shells. Master Degree thesis. 90- 93.
  Hybrid element formulation and Fortran software development for stress analysis of shallow shells.
  

Selected Publications

Journal papers

1. L. Vu-Quoc, V. Srinivas, Y. Zhai, "A generalized unit system for concise electromagnetic formulation and accurate numerical solutions". Journal of Computational Physics, vol.181, No.2, pp.407-429, 2002. (pdf)
2. L. Vu-Quoc, V. Srinivas, Y. Zhai, "Finite-element analysis of advanced multilayer capacitors", International Journal for Numerical Method in Engineering, vol.58, No.3, pp.397-461, 2003. (pdf)
3. L. Vu-Quoc, Y. Zhai, K. Ngo, "Efficient simulation of coupled circuit-field problems: Generalized Falk method". IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, vol.23, No.8, pp.1209-1219, 2004. (pdf)
4. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, W. Farrell, "Quasi-electrostatic field analysis and simulation of Martian and terrestrial dust devils". Journal of Geophysical Research, v111, E06016, doi:10.1029/2005JE002618, 2006.
5. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, "A flexible and robust direct reconstruction method for magnetospheric radio tomography". Radio Science, vol.40, no.3, RS3004, May 2005.
6. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, "An orthogonal projection and regularization (OPR) technique for magnetospheric radio tomography". Journal of Geophysical Research, vol.111, no.A3, A03207, March, 2006.
7. S. Cummer, Y. Zhai, W. Hu, D. Smith, L. Lopez, M. Stanley, "Measurements and implications of the relationship between lightning and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes". Geophysical Research Letters , vol.32, no.8, L08811, 30 Apr 2005.
8. Y. Zhai, L. Vu-Quoc, "Analysis of power magnetic components with nonlinear static hysteresis: Finite element formulation". IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol.41, no.7, pp.2243-2256, 2005.
9. Y. Zhai, L. Vu-Quoc, "Analysis of power magnetic components with nonlinear static hysteresis: Proper orthogonal decomposition and model reduction". IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, submitted, 2005.
10. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, J. Green, B. Reinisch, M. Kaiser, M. reiner, K. Goetz, "Magnetospheric radio tomography: An IMAGE and WIND experiment". Geophysical Research Letters, to be submitted 25 Oct 2004.
11. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, J. Green, B. Reinisch, I. Christopher, R. Mutel, J. Pickett, D. Gurnett, "Magnetospheric radio tomography: A Cluster experiment". Geophysical Research Letters, to be submitted 25 Oct 2004.

Conference papers

1. L. Vu-Quoc, Y. Zhai, K. Ngo, "Coordinate transformation and model reduction for efficient simulation of coupled circuit-field problems". Proceedings of the 32th Power Electronic Specialists Conference, vol.4, pp.2109-2114, June 2001, Vancouver, Canada (pdf). Also at the Symposium: Computational Methods for Adaptive Structures and MEMS, 6th US National Congress on Computational Mechanics, August 2001, Dearborn, Michigan.
2. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, J. Green, B. Reinisch, I. Christopher, R. Mutel, J. Pickett, D. Gurnett, C. P. Escoubet, "Magnetospheric Radio Tomography: Theory and CLUSTER Experiments", American Geophysical Union Fall meeting, 2004, San Francisco, California
3. Y. Zhai, S. Cummer, D. Smith, L. Lopez, "Measurements of Current and Charge Transfer in Lightning Associated with RHESSI-Detected Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes", American Geophysical Union Fall meeting, 2005, San Francisco, California (abstract).

Achievements

• International Student Outstanding Academic Achievement Awards , University of Florida. 2000.
• International Graduate Student Achievement Awards, University of Florida. 1999.
• Outstanding Achievement in Scientific Research in NCEPDI. North China Electric Power Design Institute. 1995.
• Guanghua Scholarship. Huazhong University of Science & Technology. 1992.