Dr Kunal Pardikar Post-Doctoral Research Associate
September 2020 - Present
Contact: Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin St, Sheffield, S1 3JD k.pardikar@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography As a part of the Faraday Institution’s Nextrode project, I work on developing novel electrode manufacturing techniques. The focus is on understanding the influence of active material particle structure on the electrochemical performance.
I completed my PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Purdue University, USA (2016-2020). My PhD research focused on the continuum modelling of particulate materials. Specifically, I used Finite Element Method (FEM) to simulate powder flow through hopper system. I delivered presentations about this research at multiple international conferences including AIChE, IFPRI. During my PhD, I did summer internships with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
Before starting my PhD, I completed the dual-degree program (Bachelor’s + Master’s) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India in 2015. My master’s thesis was CFD simulation of natural circulation system of a nuclear reactor.
Research My research interests include novel electrode manufacturing techniques for Li-ion batteries, spherical agglomeration, and computational modelling (FEM, CFD, PBM, DEM) of powder flow. I am interested in understanding the process-product relationship of various particulate processes and identifying key mechanisms behind the product structure and performance. Applying mechanistic understanding to generate novel active material particle structures for Li-ion battery is my key research interest.
Selected Publications
K. Pardikar, S. Zahid, C. Wassgren, Quantitative comparison of experimental and Mohr-Coulomb finite element method simulation flow characteristics from quasi two-dimensional flat-bottomed bins, Powder Technol. 367 (2020) 689–702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2020.04.036.
K. Pardikar, C. Wassgren, Predicting the critical outlet width of a hopper using a continuum finite element method model, Powder Technol. 356 (2019) 649–660. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.08.111.