IIT Delhi - Abu Dhabi

Research Areas

Manufacturing Metal Forming Materials Processing Automotive Applications Aerospace Applications Finite Element Simulation

Biosketch

Prof. D. Ravi Kumar is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi, and he has nearly 30 years of experience in teaching and research. His broad research area is Manufacturing, with specific research activities focused mainly on Metal Forming and Materials Processing for automotive and aerospace applications. His work includes both finite element simulation and experimental investigations of various metal forming processes involving large plastic deformation.

Prof. Ravi Kumar received the institute's Teaching Excellence Award at IIT Delhi in 2011-12, and he was the first recipient of the J.M. Mahajan award for the Outstanding Young Teacher in Mechanical Engineering in 2008. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute for Metal Forming Technology, University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 2008. He has been in active research collaboration with the Institute for Manufacturing Technology (LFT), University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, since 2013. He was a visiting faculty member at the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 2005-06. Before joining IIT Delhi, he was with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, where he received the Best R&D project award for the year 1997-98.

Prof. Ravi Kumar has published nearly 90 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and more than 50 papers in international conferences. He supervised 19 doctoral theses, and another 6 are in progress. He has carried out sponsored research projects funded by DST, ISRO and DRDO as the Principal Investigator and consultancy projects sponsored by industries such as Tata Steel, Cessna India, and John Deere.

Prof. Ravi Kumar was Head, Central Workshop (2017-21) at IIT Delhi and contributed to establishing the manufacturing facility (Workshop) at IITD-Abu Dhabi campus. He was also Chairman, Grades and Registration during 2012-16 at IIT Delhi. He was a member of the Board of Governors, NIFFT Ranchi (presently, National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, NIAMT) during 2017-20 and is a member of the Board of Governors, National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology (since 2023). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Production Engineering Journal (Springer) and the Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals (Springer).

Professional Highlights

Nearly 30 years of teaching and research experience.

Head, Central Workshop, IIT Delhi (2017-21).

Contributed to establishing the manufacturing facility (Workshop) at IITD-Abu Dhabi campus.

Chairman, Grades and Registration, IIT Delhi (2012-16).

Former member, Board of Governors, NIFFT Ranchi / NIAMT (2017-20).

Member, Board of Governors, National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology (since 2023).

Editorial Board member of Production Engineering Journal and Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals.

Recent Publications
  • Kumar, V., Digavalli, R.K. (2026) Formability analysis of aluminium alloys in circular and square hole flanging for lightweight manufacturing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 142, 899–918.
  • Chand, S., Tarone, H., Kumar, D. R., & Anoop, C. R. (2026). Formability investigations of 15–5 PH stainless steel sheets. Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 41(4), 493–502.
  • Tamuly, R., Ansari, S., Ravi Kumar, D. et al. (2026) Prediction of peak load in warm extrusion of a biocompatible Mg–Zn–Ca alloy: a machine learning approach integrated with FE simulation. Int J Interact Des Manuf 20, 77–91.
  • Prabhakar, S., Digavalli, R.K. & Aravindan, S. (2025) Microstructural evolution during multi-axial forging of AA6082/B4C nanocomposites. J Mater Sci 60, 3751–3767.
  • Kumar R, Digavalli RK. (2024) Lightweighting an automotive fuel tank through formability analysis. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering; 239 (13): 6787-6799.