Summary
CFD engineer with four years developing and validating turbulence models for industrial use. Core expertise
in boundary-layer physics, wall modelling and the effect of surface roughness on drag, working across DNS,
LES and RANS on Tier-1 HPC and across both single-phase and free-surface multiphase flows. Methods delivered
into an industrial partner’s production simulation framework and in active use by their engineering team.
Comfortable owning a problem end to end: geometry and meshing, solver setup, validation against experimental
data, and communicating results to non-specialist engineering teams. Available immediately.
Experience
CFD Research Engineer, Industry-Partnered R&D (EPSRC / AkzoNobel)Sep 2022 – Aug 2026
University of Edinburgh
- Developed and validated wall models for non-equilibrium boundary layers at surface-roughness step changes, predicting drag where standard wall functions break down.
- Built a multi-fidelity DNS to LES to RANS workflow, using high-fidelity data to calibrate and test RANS closures for industrial application.
- Transferred the method into AkzoNobel’s internal RANS testing framework through a documented workflow, now in active use by their engineering team.
- Co-investigator on an ARCHER2 allocation (UK Tier-1 national supercomputer, project e854), running and managing large-scale MPI-parallel campaigns.
- Co-PI on a EuroHPC Extreme Scale Access award: 221,000 node-hours on LUMI-C.
- Coordinated a programme across Edinburgh, Southampton and the United States Naval Academy, and presented results to non-specialist industrial stakeholders.
Aerodynamics Domain Head, Team Aeolus (AIAA Design/Build/Fly)Aug 2019 – Aug 2020
PES University
- Led aerodynamic design, CFD analysis and technical documentation; placed 2nd globally in the AIAA-DBF 2020 proposal phase.
Teaching Assistant, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Thermofluids2022 – 2026
University of Edinburgh
- Tutorials and assessment in boundary-layer theory, heat transfer and CFD for cohorts of 30–60.
Technical Skills
- Solvers
- OpenFOAM (including solver customisation), Ansys Fluent, RANS/URANS, LES, DNS, multiphase and free-surface (VOF)
- Turbulence
- k–ω SST, wall modelling, rough-wall closures, non-equilibrium boundary layers, adverse pressure gradients
- Meshing
- snappyHexMesh, Gmsh, Hypermesh; inflation-layer generation, mesh quality, grid sensitivity
- Verification
- Validation against experimental data, grid-dependence studies, uncertainty reporting
- Computing
- ARCHER2, MPI, SLURM, Linux, Docker, Git, Python, C, C++, MATLAB, ParaView
Education
PhD in Engineering (CFD) — University of Edinburgh2022 – 2026
Thesis: Wall-Modelled RANS of Non-Equilibrium Boundary Layers at Roughness Step Changes. Industrial partner: AkzoNobel. Thesis submitted; viva pending.
MSc Computational Fluid Dynamics, Distinction — Cranfield University2021 – 2022
Numerical methods, HPC, turbulence modelling, grid generation. Thesis: DNS of a turbulent flame kernel.
B.Tech Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace Specialisation) — PES University2017 – 2021
GPA 8.08/10. Aerodynamics, gas dynamics, turbomachinery, FEM.
Publications and Awards
- Design data for wavy fins in compact aerospace heat exchangers. ISHMT-ASTFE 2021, 2349–2355.
- BM, P. et al. (2022). Numerical simulation of airflow in naturally ventilated attics. Heat Transfer, 51(3), 2604–2627.
- Open case study: Supersonic flow over a double-wedge airfoil (OpenFOAM, sonicFoam). FOSSEE CFD archive, IIT Bombay, 2020.
- Presented at APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 2025; Marine Coatings and Hydrodynamics 2025; UK Fluids 2023 and 2024.
- Co-Investigator, ARCHER2 allocation e854 · Co-PI, EuroHPC Extreme Scale Access, 221k node-hours on LUMI-C · CNR Rao Merit Scholarship · DAC Distinction, every semester.
Selected Software Projects
Nalayira Divya Prabandham Learning Appmridusai.me/prabandham
Free learning PWA for memorising 4000 Tamil verses: daily scheduling, spaced-repetition reviews, offline support. Vanilla JavaScript + PHP.
Self-hosted web platform
Docker-based hosting platform serving 20+ production websites through Cloudflare Tunnel, with automated backups and zero-downtime migration from AWS.