About
Simulation portfolioBart Blockmans, PhD
Mechanical engineer · Simulation consultant · Physics-based software
This website is a curated archive of simulation work I developed outside confidential client projects. Many of these projects started as LinkedIn posts: short technical stories built around a model, an animation, or a question I wanted to understand more deeply. As the collection grew, I wanted to give them a more permanent, searchable, and better-structured home. My work sits at the intersection of mechanical engineering, numerical simulation, programming, AI, and scientific visualization. The projects range from compact analytical models to larger workflows involving multibody dynamics, finite-element modelling, CFD, optimal control, machine learning, or model reduction. The common thread is a physics-based modelling approach, keeping the model as simple as possible but not simpler, and using visualizations to make the result understandable.
Background
I am a Belgian mechanical engineer and independent consultant working on computer-aided engineering, simulation, and physics-based software. My background is in flexible multibody dynamics, model reduction, drivetrain and gear dynamics, but over time my work has expanded into vehicle dynamics, cycling performance, AI-assisted computer vision, and digital twin development. I completed my PhD at KU Leuven LMSD, where I worked on making dynamic contact simulations fast enough to be useful in practice. That theme still runs through much of my work: start from first principles, identify the bottleneck, simplify carefully, and turn the result into something that can be inspected, tested, and understood.
2023–present
Independent simulation consultant
Automotive · Machinery · Motorsport · Cycling · AI
2018–2023
Senior researcher & project lead
KU Leuven LMSD · Flanders Make
2012–2018
PhD researcher
KU Leuven LMSD
2010–2012
M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering
KU Leuven
2006–2010
M.Sc. Industrial Engineering
KU Leuven Group T