Rate My Professor Nek Sharan

Sharan’s research focuses on computational fluid dynamics, developing high-order numerical methods for hyperbolic systems, direct numerical and large-eddy simulations of turbulent flows, and modeling fluid-structure interactions in high-speed compressible flows. He directs the Computational Fluids Group at Auburn and has secured significant funding, including a $290,000 National Science Foundation grant in 2025 to advance tools for simulating transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flows with applications to aircraft design, infrastructure fortification, and space propulsion. As principal investigator, he co-leads a U.S. Department of Defense DEPSCoR project with Vrishank Raghav to study airflow impacts on hovering rotor blades over inclined surfaces, aiming to enhance rotorcraft safety by mitigating brownouts and whiteouts. Key publications feature “High-order dimensionally-split Cartesian cut-cell method for non-dissipative schemes” and “Time stability of strong boundary conditions in finite-difference schemes for hyperbolic systems” both in 2022 (Journal of Computational Physics and SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, respectively), “Investigation of high-pressure turbulent jets using direct numerical simulation” (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2021), and “Turbulent shear-layer mixing: initial conditions, and direct-numerical and large-eddy simulations” (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2019). His scholarship has garnered over 175 citations, reflecting impact in high-fidelity aerodynamic modeling.