Dr. Om Parkash Sharma
Award Year: 1999 | Degree Year: 1970
Dr. Om Parkash Sharma received his B.Tech. and M.Tech. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1967 and 1970. He obtained his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Birmingham University, UK in 1975 and served at the university until 1977. joined Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), USA. He is currently the Director Modeling, Analysis, Simulation and Computation for UTC.
Dr. Sharma joined the aircraft industry at a time when manufacturers relied heavily on test data for engine development, which invariably yielded sub-optimal designs. He successfully initiated the utilization of controlled physical and numerical experiments as the preferred approach to evolve physics-based systems for developing aircraft engines. In 1982, Dr. Sharma led a team to develop low loss, 3-D airfoil and end-wall concepts which yielded up to 20% loss reduction for fans, compressors and turbines and are currently used in the design of turbo-machines for aircraft, power generation and space propulsion systems. In 1984, Dr. Sharma led a team to investigate turbine durability problems in an advanced engine and developed hot- streak management concepts resulting in significant increase in the life of mechanical parts. This also provided the potential to increase the turbine rotor inlet temperature by almost 300°F for the same material and cooling air. From 1986 to 1990, Dr. Sharma led the development of high fidelity physics based design system for turbines. His concepts were implemented successfully for the design of turbines for the Alternate Turbo-pump for the Space Shuttle Main Engine, PW4000, F119 and Joint Strike Fighter Engines.
In 1992, Dr. Sharma was appointed as the Chief of Aerodynamics for Fans and Compressors and he led a world class team including technical experts from the UTC, MIT and NASA to advance the state-of-the-art in the compressor design process. The effort resulted in the design and development of a multistage compressor that produced 20% lower losses. This machine is currently flying in Boeing 777 aircraft. His work has made major contributions to the reduced development time for gas turbine engines by a factor of 2 over the last 15 years achieved by focusing on developing physics based rigorous design processes and by replacing a large number of test rigs with limited controlled experiments. In 1995, UTC honoured Dr. Sharma and one of his co-investigators with the M.ead Award, the corporation’s highest technical award.
Dr. Sharma was appointed as the Senior Fellow of Turbomachinery in 1995 and Chief Aerodynamicist of Pratt & Whitney in 1997. Since 1998, Dr. Sharma has served as Director Modeling, Analysis, Simulation and Computation for UTC. The focus of his team is directed towards achieving a 50% reduction in the cost of development, time-to-market and product warranty costs over the next three years for all of UTC’s products. In honouring Dr. Sharma, we recognize the outstanding contributions made by an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi as a Mechanical Engineer in the area of aerodynamics, specially towards the design and development of improved turbines and compressors for the aircraft industry, earning recognition and through his achievements bringing glory to the name of the Institute.
