Dr Brian Kirke

After graduating in civil engineering from the University of Adelaide in 1967, I worked in a variety of positions, ranging from professional engineer to lecturer in Aboriginal languages at SACAE. From an early age I have been interested in sustainability issues, in particular renewable energy, energy efficiency, water supply and "living simply so all may simply live." From 1991-2003 I was a full time academic at Griffith University Gold Coast, teaching structural design, stress analysis, dynamics and hydraulics, completing a PhD on vertical axis wind turbines and working with local companies on a variety of small consulting jobs. A student project developing an energy-efficient surface pump for circulating reservoir water and preventing toxic algal blooms, a major problem in potable water storages in summer, led to the formation of a successful company, WEARS, which manufactures and installs these devices. With another local comany, Tidal Energy P/L, I developed a diffuser-augmented Darrieus type variable pitch hydrokinetic turbine which demonstrated a 3 fold increase in power output over the bare turbine. In 2004 I resigned from Griffith University to give more time to pursue interests relating to sustainability and took up a position as an adjunct senior research fellow in the Sustainable Energy Centre at UniSA. In this position I have developed and taught MENG4014 Developments in Vehicle Technology, supervised undergraduate projects on tidal energy, wave energy and pumped hydro energy storage. I did consulting work on hydrokinetic turbines in Canada and the UK and supervised a PhD project on river turbines for electrical power supply remote tropical villages, developing a non-clogging turbine which overcomes a major problem with hydrokinetic turbines which get clogged with floating debris and/or damaged by floating logs. This work has led to an ongoing collaboration with my former student, now a senior lecturer in Sarawak. From 2005-2016 I was technical Director of Seadov P/L, developing a design for a floating desalination plant powered by renewable energy. In 2017 I set up my own website, www.briankirke.com, to share information which I think may be of general interest.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Griffith University

• Master of Engineering (Civil) The University of Adelaide

• Bachelor of Engineering The University of Adelaide