Influences of wind flow over heritage sites: A case study of the wind environment over the Giza Plateau in Egypt

Abstract

Wind influences are important environmental factors that cause deterioration of historical heritage sites. This work presents a computational framework for investigating the influences of the wind flow over such sites. The wind flow is considered to be fully turbulent, isothermal and incompressible. The present framework employs three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations along with multi-block approach and non-conformal meshes to perform wind flow simulations over such sites with complex geometry. As a case study, the influences of wind flow over the “Giza Plateau”, one of the most important Egyptian historical heritage sites, were studied for the Northwest wind (at average wind speed over the year) and the Southwest windstorms. The study addresses the less understood, yet important, influences of the wind flow structure on the site and its famous monuments: the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Qualitative and quantitative treatments of the results are carried out for estimating the wind loading on the different monuments within the plateau. Particular attention was paid to the Great Sphinx to investigate its most vulnerable parts to the wind, as one of the critical environmental factors that cause erosion of this colossal statue.