Wind Flow Around the Toumba Building at Lefkandi: Experimental and Numerical Analysis

This paper presents a part of an interdisciplinary study of an ancient Greek archaeological monument, the 10th-century BC Toumba Building at Lefkandi. The Toumba Building is one of the earliest-known monumental structures built in Greece following the end of the Bronze Age. Only the base of its walls is preserved, and scholars have proposed different reconstructions for the missing parts. The study presented herein is aimed at informing a structural analysis that will test a new breakthrough reconstruction hypothesis proposed by the team. In particular, the roof pitch angle remains controversial and a wind analysis was therefore critical to assessing the validity of such reconstruction. This research studies the turbulent flow generated around a scaled-physical-building model through wind tunnel experiments, using 2-dimensional planar PIV. The flow data was utilized to validate a series of CFD simulations aimed at reconstructing the pressure distribution around the building and thus estimate the wind load. Three different roof-pitch-angles and three different angles of attack were considered to identify the worse-case scenario. The CFD model was successfully validated and the critical wind load was estimated. Preliminary structural analysis suggests that the building was likely able to withstand a much stronger load that previously proposed. Further analysis is ongoing.