CFD Computations of Flow Regimes and Thermal Patterns in The Tombs of The Valley of Kings

Abstract

Airflow characteristics in ventilated and air-conditioned spaces play an important role to attain comfort and hygiene conditions. This paper utilizes a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to assess the airflow characteristics in ventilated and air-conditioned archeological tombs of Egyptian Kings in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. It is found that the optimum airside design system can be attained, if the airflow is directed to pass all the enclosure areas before the extraction with careful selection of near wall velocities to avoid any wear or aberration of the tomb-wall paintings. The mode of evaluation should assess the airflow characteristics in any tomb passage according to its position in the enclosure and the thermal pattern and air quality. The airside design and internal obstacles are the focus of the present work. The free air supply and mechanically extracted ducted air play an important role in the main flow pattern and the creation of main recirculation zones. The internal obstacles can obstruct the airflow pattern in different ways, such as, by increasing the recirculation zones or by deflecting the main airflow pattern.