MIE’s Jinglei Ping and Research Team Publish Pioneering Paper on “Non-Newtonian Fluids” in Applied Physics Letters

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Jinglei Ping

The term “non-Newtonian fluids” refers to any fluids that do not conform to Newton’s law of viscosity and includes such important substances in everyday life as toothpaste, nail polish, latex paint, various silicone oils or coatings, and sewage sludge. Now, Associate Professor Jinglei Ping of the UMass Amherst Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department has collaborated with five co-authors (including co-first authors Huilu Bao and Xin Zhang from Ping’s lab) to publish a groundbreaking paper in the distinguished journal Applied Physics Letters that describes their cutting-edge research on non-Newtonian fluids. Their project opens new vistas for the study, development, manufacture, control, measurement, and application of these substances. See https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0226525.

The team’s research responds to a crucial problem, as the researchers explain in Applied Physics Letters: “Real-time, all-electronic control of non-Newtonian-fluid flow through a microscale channel is crucial for various applications in manufacturing and healthcare. However, existing methods lack the sensitivity required for accurate measurement and the real-time responsiveness necessary for effective adjustment.” 

The trailblazing research reported in Applied Physics Letters provides this long-sought sensitivity, accurate measurement, and real-time response. As the researchers say in Applied Physic Letters, “Here, we demonstrate an all-electronic system that enables closed-loop, real-time, high-sensitivity control of various waveforms of non-Newtonian-fluid flow.”

As Ping explains in a Scilight interview (here) about this state-of-the-art research, “Our work offers significant promise for applications in additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, and in medicine, such as microfluidic devices. New instrumentation, such as next-generation food dispensers, can also be developed based on this technology.”

As the Scilight article explains the backstory to the research described in Applied Physics Letters, various food-production, manufacturing, and healthcare applications need to control the flow rate of non-Newtonian fluids through different types of microscale channels. “However, the viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids varies depending on stress, which makes these fluids more challenging to measure. Existing flow sensors tend to either disturb non-Newtonian fluids or be bulky, inaccurate, costly, slow, or difficult to integrate with existing flow systems.”

In response to this issue, Ping and his team have developed a method of precisely measuring and controlling non-Newtonian-fluid flow at a microscale outlet of a fluid channel with high sensitivity and in real time. This closed-loop system is fully electronic and smaller than previous methods.

As the Scilight piece notes, the research team’s method combines a contactless, cuff-like flow sensor with an AI algorithm. “When wrapped around a fluid-dispensing nozzle tip, the flow sensor, a 3-millimeter-wide copper-tape transducer, detects the triboelectricity generated by the flowing fluid with a connected coulomb meter to yield flow rates.” The AI algorithm then analyzes the measured flow rates to predict future flow rates and control the flow to match desired rates. 

The team’s paper in Applied Physics Letters concludes that “This system offers a simple, miniaturized, versatile, yet high-performance solution for non-Newtonian-fluid-flow control, easily integrated into existing setups.” 

This AI algorithm was developed with support from National Institute of General Medical Sciences Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award No. R35GM151128. (November 2024)