CFD modeling of indoor ventilation and temperature distribution in the Nativity church in Bethlehem

The work presented in this paper is part of an international project about the Basilica of Nativity in Bethlehem, famous and ancient Church dating back to the late 6th century and added in 2012 to the UNESCO world heritage list. Here we present a preliminary Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of indoor flow and temperature fields in this still well-preserved building. In particular, the aim of the numerical simulation is to examine the impact of windows opening on indoor thermal equilibrium of the church, characterized by a complex geometry. The computed air temperature in the steady-state regime and the time historyof air speed suggest that this simple but effective strategy can improve both the thermal comfort during visiting hours and the conservation conditions for mosaics and mural paintings.