Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar
Anirudh Kulkarni, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar, India. Principal Investigator of RudhLab.
About
I am a mechanical engineering academic and computational researcher specialising in computational fluid dynamics, computational heat transfer, and numerical methods for transport phenomena.
My work spans finite-volume and lattice-Boltzmann methods, immersed-boundary formulations, porous-media flows, bluff-body aerodynamics, renewable-energy systems, dental simulation, and GPU-accelerated scientific computing.
Current interests include conservative high-performance solvers, multiphase and phase-change transport, CUDA implementation, and machine-learning-assisted surrogate modelling and engineering design.
Appointments
2020–present
2015–2020
Teaching Assistant and Doctoral Researcher
Indian Institute of Technology Indore
Jul–Dec 2014
Research Intern
Indian Institute of Technology Indore. Numerical research on flow and heat transfer from porous bluff bodies.
2013–2014
CAD–CAE Tutor and Project Consultant
Soham Technologies. Training and project support in CAD, multiphysics, and CFD/CAE workflows.
Education
2015–2020
PhD, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
Indian Institute of Technology Indore
2009–2013
BE, Mechanical Engineering
Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur
Research leadership
Principal Investigator of the IKS stepwell project, and Co-Principal Investigator of projects on underwater rheological characterisation and regenerative electrolysers. All three run from 2026 to 2029. Project details
Supervises Tannu Parmar, Junior Research Fellow on the IKS project, and Bhau Kolhe, part-time PhD researcher working on vertical-axis wind turbine analysis and performance improvement.
Research interests
- Computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer
- Dental simulation and computational mechanics
- Porous-media flows and bluff-body aerodynamics
- GPU-accelerated numerical solvers
- Multiphase and phase-change transport
- Renewable-energy systems
- Machine-learning-assisted CFD and reduced-order modelling
Methods and tools
Numerical methods
Finite-volume, lattice-Boltzmann, immersed-boundary, finite-element, and spectral/FFT-based methods.
Languages
C, C++, CUDA C++, Python, Julia, FORTRAN, and MPI.
Software
OpenFOAM, CalculiX, FEniCS, ANSYS, SolidWorks Flow Simulation, ParaView, VTK, Linux, and Git.
Teaching
Computational Fluid Dynamics; Fluid Mechanics; Heat Transfer; Thermodynamics; Numerical Methods for Mechanical Engineering; Computational Engineering Laboratory; CFD and Heat Transfer Laboratory; Computer-Aided Design; Elements of Mechanical Engineering; and comprehensive projects.
Service and recognition
- Co-mentor of the PDEU Student Satellite Programme.
- NAAC and NBA task-force activities; coordination of comprehensive projects, seminars, and minor projects.
- Hands-on workshops and training in CFD, OpenFOAM, numerical methods, machine learning in CFD, scientific computing, and technical writing.
- Best Poster Award, Third Faculty Research Symposium, PDEU, 2023.
- Ministry of Human Resource Development doctoral fellowship, IIT Indore, 2015–2020.
- Foundation for Excellence undergraduate scholarship, 2009–2013.
Talks
Invited talks and workshop sessions on CFD, OpenFOAM, and machine learning in CFD. Upcoming and past talks
Publications
18 journal articles and 3 book chapters in computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer, renewable energy, and dental mechanics. Full list