Joshua Brinkerhoff

Dr. Joshua Brinkerhoff is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus. He serves as the Associate Director for Research & Industrial Partnerships in the School of Engineering and leads the UBC-Okanagan Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. His research spans computational fluid dynamics, turbomachinery, multiphase flows, hydrogen safety, wind energy, and biofluid mechanics. He teaches courses in mechanics of materials, alternative energy systems, turbulence, computational fluid dynamics, and aircraft design.

• PhD, Aerospace Engineering (Carleton University, Ottawa, ON)
• BEng, Aerospace Engineering (Carleton University)

Dr. Brinkerhoff’s research interests include:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for laminar-to-turbulent transition and instability analysis
• Wind energy systems and turbine aerodynamics
• Hydrogen storage and safety protocols for transportation
• Biofluid mechanics for respiratory diseases and aneurysm modeling
• Multiphase flows in industrial and environmental contexts

His publications focus on CFD simulations for:

• Aerosol dispersion and mitigation in indoor environments
• Wind farm interactions and atmospheric gravity waves
• Cavitation and phase transitions in cryogenic and LNG systems
• Heat transfer optimization in industrial and thermal systems
• Instability dynamics in buoyancy-driven and swept flows
• Turbulent structures in fluidized beds and reactors

Dr. Brinkerhoff has no listed scientific awards in the provided data but has extensive contributions to renewable energy, hydrogen safety, and medical fluid dynamics. His laboratory develops open-source tools like TOSCA for large-eddy simulations and investigates practical applications in urban air quality, dental aerosol control, and turbine wake modeling.