Experimental Study of the Wind Pressure Field on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

ABSTRACT

The paper concerns an experimental study on the wind pressures over the surface of a worldwide known Gothic Cathedral: Notre Dame of Paris. The experimental tests have been conducted in the CRIACIV wind tunnel, Prato (Italy), on a model of the Cathedral at the scale 1:200, reproducing the atmospheric boundary layer. Two types of tests have been conducted: with and without the surrounding modeling the part of the city of Paris near the Cathedral. This has been done, on the one hand, for evaluating the effect of the surrounding buildings onto the wind pressure distribution on the Cathedral, and, on the other hand, to have a wind pressure distribution plausible for any other Cathedral with a similar shape. The tests have been done for all the wind directions and the mean and peak pressures have been recorded. The results emphasize that the complex geometry of this type of structures is responsible for a peculiar aerodynamic behavior that does not allow estimating correctly the wind loads on the various parts of the Cathedral based on codes and standards, which are tailored for ordinary regular buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• Additive manufacturing
• climate change effects
• Gothic Cathedral
• Notre Dame
• wind pressure
• wind tunnel tests

Acknowledgments

Authors want to thank:

• Martin Peters, former director of the Eiffel Wind Tunnel Laboratory, Paris, for his valuable help concerning the history of wind tunnel research on historical monuments.

• Emmanuel Portet and Laure Frèrejean, University of Versailles and Saint Quentin, for their fruitful commitment and help in the administrative and financial aspects of this research.

• Bernardo Nicese, Clara Gessl and Petar Melnjak, who helped us in the execution of the laboratory tests in Prato.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ HYPERION (Development of a Decision Support System for Improved Resilience and Sustainable Reconstruction of historic areas to cope with Climate Change and Extreme Events based on Novel Sensors and Modelling Tools);

ARCH (Advancing Resilience of Historic Areas against Climate-related and other Hazards);

CONSECH20 (CONSErvation of 20th century concrete Cultural Heritage in urban changing environments.

² Centro di Ricerca Interuniversitario di Aerodinamica delle Costruzioni e Ingegneria del Vento, Inter-University Research Centre on Building Aerodynamics and Wind Engineering