Thermal Capacity Masonry Shell Modeling and Simulation of Byzantine Monuments in Greece

Masonry buildings, when subjected to external temperature fluctuations, tend to regulate them either by storing heat in their thermal mass or by offering it back to the interior, with a time lag depending on the thermal capacity of the building and characterized mainly by the overall mass of the masonry. This time lag may vary from a few hours when lightweight masonry is concerned to several days for masonry buildings of large mass. The scope of this work is to calculate the thermal capacity of Byzantine (334 – 1453 AD) monuments in Greece and to show how their thermal capacity affects their internal temperature temporal profile. The analysis will be based on a typical 6 AD century Byzantine Church in Thessaloniki Greece, dedicated to the Holy Wisdom of God our Lord (Aghia Sophia).