SheardLab.org

Rotating flows

We investigate the stability of shearing rotating flows to understand the polygonal deformations in atmospheric flows such as polar vortices and hurricane eyewalls.
Rotating flows

Rotating flows are found from bathtub drain whirlpools to mixing vessels in process industries to the rotating air masses in the polar atmosphere.
Magnetohydrodynamics

We are exploring novel combinations of physical and electrical turbulence generators to enhance heat transfer in MHD duct flows.
Magnetohydrodynamics

We are studying heat transfer in MHD flows under intense magnetic fields with application to emerging fusion technologies.
Magnetohydrodynamics

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is the interaction between electrically conducting fluid flows and magnetic fields.
Natural convection

We are uncovering the scalings controlling horizontal convection and their relationship to instability and turbulent transition in these flows.
Natural convection

Horizontal convection is the overturning circulation produced by non-uniform heating across a horizontal boundary.
Natural convection

Natural convection is the motion of fluids invoked by density gradients arising from differences in temperature, salinity, etc.
The Sheard Lab

We make use of Australia's largest supercomputers to execute our computational fluid dynamics simulations and analysis.
The Sheard Lab

We specialise in the use of the high-order spectral element method for the direct numerical simulation of these flows.
The Sheard Lab

These include rotating flows, magnetohydrodynamics, convection and heat transfer.
The Sheard Lab

We investigate the fluid dynamics, heat transfer and stability of flows with geophysical and industrial applications.
The Sheard Lab

We are a research team located in the Engineering precinct of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

News & highlights

Sneha Murali wins the 12AHMTC Best Student Presentation Award The 12th Australasian Heat & Mass Transfer Conference, 1 Jul 2022
Sneha Murali has been awarded the Best Student Presentation Award from the The 12th Australasian Heat & Mass Transfer Conference, for her presentation on heat transfer enhancement in MHD duct flows.
PhD completion for Sneha Murali! The Sheard Lab, 24 Jun 2022
Congratulations to our latest PhD graduate, Dr Sneha Murali. Sneha's thesis investigates the use of wall protuberances exciting instability and heat transfer in duct flows, vital in liquid-metal flows smoothed by magnetic fields.
PhD completion for Peyman Mayeli! The Sheard Lab, 30 May 2022
Congratulations to Dr Peyman Mayeli on the conferral today of his PhD. Peyman's PhD investigated novel models for natural convection flows beyond the conventional Boussinesq approach.
Stability of flow in a channel with repeated flow-facing wedge-shaped protrusions J. Fluid Mech., 10 May 2022
In our latest article published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, the effect of adding wedge-shaped protrusions on a channel wall on the stability and behaviour of the flow is revealed.

Recent publications

Linear stability analysis of horizontal convection under a Gay-Lussac type approximation.

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 182, 121929, 2022.
Stability of flow in a channel with repeated flow-facing wedge-shaped protrusions.

Journal of Fluid Mechanics 941, A59, 2022.
Energy saving and performance analysis of air-cooled photovoltaic panels.

International Journal of Energy Research 46 (4), 4825-4834, 2022.
An entropy generation analysis of horizontal convection under the centrifugal buoyancy approximation.

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 133, 105923, 2022.
Stability of pulsatile quasi-two-dimensional duct flows under a transverse magnetic field.

Physical Review Fluids 6 (5), 053903, 2021.
Natural convection and entropy generation in square and skew cavities due to large temperature differences: A Gay-Lussac-type vorticity stream-function approach.

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 93 (7), 2396-2420, 2021.

Joining our team

We are expanding our team and welcome outstanding graduates with an interest in fluid mechanics, magnetohydrodynamics or convection and heat transfer to study towards a PhD. Applications must be made through Monash Graduate Research (how to apply?).