Department of Structural Engineering and Building Materials

Prof. dr. Tarek Beji

Tarek Beji.jpg

Name: Tarek Beji
Title: Prof. dr.
Function: Tenure track professor
T +32 9 264 98 46
F +32 9 264 35 75
Tarek.Beji@UGent.be 
Secretariat:
Mrs. Marijke Reunes (T + 32 9 264 55 35)

Overview

Tarek Beji is professor in Fire Dynamics at Ghent University (UGent) since 2019.

Tarek Beji obtained his PhD (2009) from Ulster University (United Kingdom) with a thesis entitled ‘Theoretical and experimental investigation on soot and radiation in fires’, after which he carried out postdoctoral research at UGent (2011-2019), including a 3-year FWO postdoctoral fellowship (2014-2017) on water spray modelling in fire-driven flows. He obtained in 2016 the title of Maître de Conférences (section 62 – Energétique, génie des procédés) from the ‘Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche’, France.

Research activities

  • Soot modelling
  • Data assimilation and fire forecasting
  • Numerical modelling of the interaction of water sprays with fire-driven flows
  • Numerical modelling of liquid pool fires
  • Compartment fire dynamics (e.g., in Nuclear Installations and tunnels)

 

He is author of about 80 scientific publications, co-author of one book (Fluid Mechanics Aspects of Fire and Smoke Dynamics in Enclosures, CRC Press) and editorial board member of the Fire Safety Journal.

Publications

A list of publications (2008-now) can be found at https://biblio.ugent.be/person/802000950535 and https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ns7-ywkAAAAJ&hl=en.

Scientific career

  • Postdoctoral fellow at UGent on fire forecasting (2011 – 2012).
  • Postdoctoral fellow at UGent on soot modelling and fire dynamics in nuclear installations (2012 – 2014). Research funded by Bel V (subsidiary of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, FANC).
  • FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) postdoctoral fellow on the interaction of sprinklers and water mist systems with natural roof venting in enclosure fires using numerical simulations (2014 – 2017).
  • Doctor-assistant at UGent (2017 – 2019).
  • Tenure track Professor at UGent since 2019.

Awards

  • Winner of the Jack Watts Award for Outstanding Reviewer of Fire Technology, 2017.
  • Title of Maître de Conférences (section 62 – Energétique, génie des procédés, qualification number 16262292863) from the ‘Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche’, France, 2016.
  • Collective ‘Fire Forum Award in collaboration with Brandweer Gent’ for the fire tests in the Rabottoren), 2013. His specific contribution consisted in the design of the experiments and the coordination with Brandweer Gent, the multimedia lab (UGent) and WarringtonFireGent.

Committees and working groups

International

Member of the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS)

National

  • Invited as expert to give presentations for the standardization Belgian mirror committee NBN CEN/TC 191/SC 1 “Smoke and heat control systems and components”
  • Invited to give a lecture on ‘Ventilation Strategies in Fire Dynamics: Theoretical and CFD Aspects’ upon invitation from Firepronet, the organization of alumni and students in Fire Safety Engineering at the Ghent University (https://www.firepronet.com/), 27 October 2014.

Editorial tasks

Member of the editorial board of the Fire Safety Journal 

Current teaching activities

  • Fire Dynamics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Fire Safety Engineering
  • Fluid Mechanics Applications in Fires