Aerodynamics of ancient egyptian Obelisks and their structural response to Boundary Layer wind

Abstract

Ancient Egyptian obelisks have been carved thousands of years ago and survived many earthquakes and wind storms. This study examines the aerodynamic characteristics and the response of two of the tallest and slenderest ancient Egyptian obelisks to boundary layer winds using a two-phase methodology. The firstphase involved preparing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for the twoobelisks with different angles of projection to wind. The variations in the windpressure coefficient and the forces on the obelisks have been studied for differentprojection angles, different reference velocities and along the height of eachobelisk. Within the second phase structural analysis was performed subjecting eachobelisk to a wind load under different angles of loading. The results show that whensubject to boundary layer winds, the pressure coefficient on the surface and thestresses within the obelisks vary significantly with the angle of attack and dimensions of the obelisk.