Biography:

I graduated in Civil Engineering in 2003 from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and received my Ph. D. in 2009 from Northwestern University. Since then I have worked as a post doctoral researcher at University of Texas at Austin (2009-2010) and at Columbia University in the City of New York (2010-2012). I consider myself fortunate to have studied and worked closely with great teachers and mentors at various prestigious institutions. I am and will always be grateful to them.

My research interests are in the general area of computational solid mechanics with an emphasis on multi-physics modeling and simulation of material degradation. Topics include: creep and fatigue fracture in materials and structures, environmentally assisted degradation of materials including corrosion, characterization of advanced materials such as composites and super-alloys. A key research focus is on developing robust, stable and efficient numerical methods for evolving phase/crack interfaces using sharp and diffuse interface approaches.

More specifically, I am interested in understanding and predicting crack interface  evolution using cohesive zone and continuum damage or phase field models. I am also interested in reactive transport modeling of multi-ionic electrochemical systems using sharp level set and diffused phase field methods. The emphasis is on developing efficient solution strategies for simulating processes involving multiple space and/or time scales within the framework of the finite element method. The computational methods and models I intend to develop are useful to study a wide array of applications in the areas of mechanics of materials and structures, geophysics, and biomedical engineering.

On going research projects include:

1. Simulating iceberg calving using damage mechanics (funded by NSF)
2. Modeling fatigue delamination in composite materials (funded by Vanderbilt Discovery Grant and ONR)
3. Sharp and diffuse interface approaches for localized corrosion
4. Simulating ultrasonic wave propagation in soft tissues with heterogeneities (funded by Vanderbilt Institute in Surgery and Engineering Pilot Grant)

Current Address:

Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,
400 24th Avenue South, 288 Jacobs Hall
Nashville, TN 37212
Email: ravindra.duddu@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: +1 615 343 4891
Fax: +1 615 322 3365

Download CV here ()

Fellowships, Honors and Awards

• National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, 2019
• Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow at the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University, 2015-16
• ONR Summer Faculty Research Program Award, 2014
• Travel Award – Southeastern Conference (SEC) Faculty Travel Grant Program, 2013-2014.
• NSF Summer Institute Fellowship – “Materials Genome Initiative” short course from June 10-12, 2013, at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
• NSF Travel Fellowship – first workshop on “Barycentric Coordinates” from July 25-27, 2012 at Columbia University, New York, NY.
• United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) Travel Award – World Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM) from July 8-13, 2012, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• NSF Summer Institute Fellowship – “Nanoscale Mechanics, Bio-inspired Hierarchical Structures, and Potential Applications” short course, from June 6-10, 2005, at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
• Walter P. Murphy Fellowship for graduate studies – Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 2003-2004.
• National Merit Scholarship – Government of India and Andhra Pradesh, India, 1999-2003.