After obtaining his Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from BHU, Varanasi, in 1964, Dr. Krishna Gopal Bhatia completed his Masters in Structural Dynamics with specialisation in earthquake engineering from University of Roorkee (presently Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee) in 1971.
In the initial years of his career, Dr. Bhatia started teaching structural dynamics to engineering students. Later, he became a UNESCO participant at the International Institute of Seismology & Earthquake Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, for advanced research in the field of earthquake engineering. The research conducted at IISEE was extended further to obtain a PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in 1984.
After a few years of teaching and research, Dr. Bhatia joined the industry, with Engineers India Ltd, where he was involved in the design of equipment foundation of a variety of machines for refineries and petrochemical plants. His designs for selected machineries were vetted by leading consultants from UK and France. This was an important milestone for the company and thereafter all the machine foundation designs in EIL were done in-house only.
Later, he moved to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd to take up more challenging assignments for thermal and nuclear power stations. The responsibility grew manifold starting from design of machine foundation to all aspects related to structural dynamics applications. It was at BHEL that Dr. Bhatia got exposure to all aspects of dynamics related to a variety of machines starting with rotor dynamics, tribology, vibration, failure investigations etc.
At BHEL, he spent almost 25 years which brought him to the forefront of structural dynamics. The rich experience of dealing with a broad spectrum of machinery for thermal, nuclear and hydro power plants, both from the point of view of design and failure investigation, has given him an edge with regard a host of information and database in design and field performance of machinery. With the advent of commercial CAE, Dr. Bhatia undertook the initiative to instill CAE simulation in BHEL and help the company leverage its benefits.
Dr. Bhatia retired from BHEL in 1999 as General Manager (Advanced Research Projects). After retirement, he has been involved in writing a book on machine foundation, interface with academia and providing industrial consultancy in machine foundation and structural dynamics.
He is also the founder and chief executive officer of D-CAD Technologies in New Delhi since July 1999.
