Faculty Directory

Brehm, Christoph

Brehm, Christoph

Aerospace Engineering
Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center
Website(s):

Dr. Brehm joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Maryland (UK) in 2021 before being appointed as Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky in 2016-2020.

Before his academic appointments, he worked as a Senior Research Scientist for the Science Technology Corporation at the Advanced Supercomputing Division at NASA Ames Research Center from 2012 to 2016. He was one of the main developers of the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) solver framework and has employed LAVA to study a wide range of unsteady fluid dynamics problems, such as rocket launch environment flows, aeroacoustic noise prediction of a contra-rotating open rotor, jet impingement noise, etc.

Professional Activities:

  • 2019-present: Active Member of NATO STO Group AVT-240 on Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition Prediction
  • 2019-present: Active Member of NATO STO Group AVT-352 on Hypersonic Turbulence
  • 2019-present: Conference Chair for International Conference of Computational Fluid Dynamics (ICCFD-11, 2022)
  • 2019-present: Co-Organizer of the LES AIAA Workshop 2021, AIAA

Major Awards:

  • 2019 Outstanding Researcher Award (UK)
  • 2019 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (ONR)
  • 2014 Best Young Researcher Presentation Award, 3rd AIAA Workshop on Benchmark Problems for Airframe Noise Computations (BANC-III)
  • 2008 Biology, Mathematics and Physics Initiative (BMPI)-BIO5 Scholarship, University of Arizona, sponsored by National Institute of Health
  • 2006 Frankfurt Airport Foundation Scholarship, 2006
  • 2005 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) ISAP Program Scholarship 2005 Hermann-Reissner Foundation Scholarship

His current research focuses on developing fundamental numerical methods to apply to large-scale flow problems—including multi-physics effects—as well as the extraction and understanding of the relevant physics. His most recent research efforts focused on simulating and analyzing transitional and turbulent flows in low and high-speed regimes for fundamental studies in laminar-turbulent transition, turbulence, relaminarization, aeroacoustics, fluid-structure interaction and fluid-ablation interaction.

Brehm has authored over 60 archival peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and has received multiple awards for his work including a 2019 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.

His research is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, Office of Naval Research (ONR), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Hypersonic Vehicle Simulation Institute (HVSI), and industry partners in close collaboration with several U.S. and international research institutions.

He is a member of the NATO Task Force on hypersonic turbulence, several American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) working groups, and is the co-organizer of the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) AIAA Workshop 2022 as well as the co-chair of the 2022 International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics (ICCFD).


Selected Publications:

J. Boustani, M. Barad, C. Kiris and C. Brehm, “An Immersed Boundary Fluid - Structure Interaction Method, for Thin, Highly Compliant Shell Structures", Journal of Computational Physics, Accepted, 2021

S. Ganju, W. van Noordt, L. di Mare, M. McGilvray, and C. Brehm, “Progress in the Development of an Immersed Boundary Viscous-Wall Model for 3D and High-Speed Flows”, incl. presentation at AIAA SciTech 2021, 11-15 January, virtual

B. Saikia, A. Martin, and C. Brehm, “Validation of a Newly-Developed Non-Equilibrium Chemically Reacting Flow Solver for Transition Prediction", AIAA Aviation Forum and Exposition, 15- 19 June, 2020, Reno, NV

O.M.F. Browne, S. Hasnine and C. Brehm, “A Numerical Method for Particle-Induced High- Speed Boundary Layer Transition Simulations", AIAA Journal, Accepted, 2020

S. Hasnine, V. Russo, O.M.F. Browne, and C. Brehm, “Disturbance Flow Field Analysis of Particulate Interaction with High-Speed Transition Boundary-Layer Flows”, AIAA Paper 2020-3046, Aviation, June 15-19, Virtual Event, 2020

A.P. Haas, O.M.F. Browne, H.F. Fasel, and C. Brehm, “A Time-Spectral Approximate Jacobian Based Linearized Compressible Navier-Stokes Solver For High-Speed Boundary-Layer Receptivity and Stability", Journal of Computational Physics, Volume 405, 108978, 2020

O.M.F. Browne, A.P. Haas, H.F. Fasel, and C. Brehm, “An Efficient Linear Wave Packet Tracking Strategy Method for Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Stability Prediction", Journal of Computational Physics, Volume 380, 243-268, 2019

C. Brehm, M.F. Barad, and C. C. Kiris, “Development of Immersed Boundary Computational Aeroacoustic Prediction Capabilities for Open-Rotor Noise", Journal of Computational Physics, 2019, Volume 388, 690-71

O.M.F. Browne, S. Hasnine, and C. Brehm, “Fully-Resolved Particulate-Induced Transition Simulations for High-Speed Boundary-Layers with an Immersed Boundary Method”, AIAA Paper 2020- 1795, Scitech, 6 – 10 January, Orlando, Florida, 2019

C. Brehm, O.M.F. Browne, and N. Ashton “Towards a Viscous Wall Model for Immersed Boundary Methods", AIAA 2018-1560, incl. presentation at AIAA SciTech, 8-12 January, Kissimmee, FL

C. Brehm, “On Consistent Boundary Closures for Compact Finite-Difference WENO Schemes", Journal of Computational Physics, 2017, Volume 334, 573-581

C. Brehm, J. A. Housman, and C. C. Kiris, “Noise Generation Mechanisms for a Supersonic Jet Impinging on an Inclined Plate", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2016, Volume 797, 802-850

C. Kiris, M. Barad, J. Housman, C. Brehm, E. Sozer, and S. Moini-Yekta, “The LAVA Computational Fluid Dynamics Solver", Aerospace Science and Technology, 2016, Volume 55, 189-219

Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. Student Receives NDSEG Fellowship Award

Federal fellowship will support Sean Dungan’s work in new computational methods for accurately and efficiently predicting boundary layer transition onset.

NAWCAD-UMD Seed Grant Review and Discussion strengthens collaboration commitment

The event emphasized research, advanced education, and outreach collaborations for the region, the state of Maryland and the nation.

Flatau Named UMD AE Chair

Alison Flatau has been named the new chair of aerospace engineering at UMD.

Brehm to Conduct First-of-Kind Flow Simulations

UMD professor awarded NSF CAREER grant to support new research on flow-surface interactions.

Aerospace Engineering Welcomes New Faculty Member Dr. Christoph Brehm

Brehm brings a wealth of expertise in hypersonics and computational fluid dynamics.