TORRE DI PISA

Esercitazione consolidamento
2015/2016

Elvira Carrin Meroo 10533709

Pablo Arregui Alonso 10533704

Consolidamento

- Tecnichal data
- A. Tower History
- B. Structure
- C. Problems emerging
- D. Diagnostic
- E. Interventions
- E. 1 Excavation of the basement
- E. 2 First research
- E. 3 First attempt
- E. 4 Basement works
- E. 5 Second counter-weights an anchors
- E. 6 Underexcavation I
- E. 7 Additional safeguard structure
- E. 8 Mansory
- E. 9 Underexcavation II
- E. 10 Additional foundations stabilization works
- F. Perspective overtime
- G. Bibliography

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Tecnichal data

- Official Name
TORRE PENDENTE DI PISA
- Function
Bell Tower (Campanile)
- Original Architect
Bonanno Pisano
- Years Built
11731350
- Base Elevation above Sea Level
About 2 meters
- First Construction Stop
1178 (War with Firenze)
- Year in which lean became obvious
1178 (Third Story)
- Height at which lean became obvious
10.6 meters (35 ft.)
- Second Construction Stop
1185 (War with Firenze)
- Later Construction Stop
1284 (War with Genoa, Major Sea Battle Defeat)
- First Bells added
1198 (Third Floor)
- Height
55.863 meters (185 feet). 8 stories.
- Outer Diameter of Base
15.484 meters
- Inner Diameter of Base
7.368 meters
- Direction of Lean
11731250 North, 12721997 South
- Architect who realized that the Leaning
Tomasso di Andrea da Pontedera (1275)
- Tower could not be straightened
Level at which Tower Straightens to North: 5
- Level at which Tower Straightens to North
7th Floor Completed: 1319
- 7th Floor Completed
Bell Tower Completed: 1350
- Bell Tower Completed
Number of Bells: 7, tuned to musical scale
- Number of Bells
Largest Bell: Three and a half tons, cast in 1655.
- Largest Bell
Oldest Bell's name: Pasquarreccia
- Oldest Bell's name
Address: Campo dei Miracoli the
- Address
"Field of Miracles", Pisa, Italia
- Weight
Weight: 14,700 metric tons
- Thickness of Walls at the Base
Thickness of Walls at the Base: 8 feet
- Year cement injected into base, (blamed for lean acceleration)
1934

The tower of Pisa was built as the bell tower of the cathedral of Pisa. It's construction began in 1173 during the
magnificence of the city.
The tower started to tilt during its construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground floor too soft
on one side to properly support the structure's weight. The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was
completed, and gradually increased until the structure was stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) by efforts in
the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

A
TOWER HISTORY

Prima fase

Seconda fase

Terza fase

The origins of the tower date from the late XII century. At that moment Italy was divided:
a) In the south the two main states of the peninsula: the states of Naples and the Vatican states.
b) In the middle-north and north many republics emerged: Pisa, Siena, Florence, Geneva, Venetia.
c) On the other side great areas governed by local aristocracy also appeared: duchess of Milan, duchess of Savoy,
duchess of Modena... Most of them finished under the government of powerful families (Visconti in Milano, Albizzi in Tuscany and later Medici, Gonzaga in Mantova...).
In the year 1063 the cathedral of Pisa was started to be built after a battle against Balear island's Muslims. Thanks
to the spoils obtained in this battle the cathedral was partly paid. The cathedral became the proud and the icon of
Pisa's greatness. It wasn't until the year 1173 when the bell tower construction works took place. This works can
be divided in 3 steps:
1- The first period can be related to the golden age of Pisa, in that moment the city enjoyed a moment of military success and prosperity. The floors from the ground floor to the third one were built. This ground floor is a
blind arcade articulated by engaged columns with classical Corinthian capitals.

As far as the second floor construction works started the building started to sink toward the north. This happened due to a simple three deep metres of foundation on an unstable ground.
2- The second step consisted of the construction of the rest of the stories and it lasted from 1272 to 1278 maybe
due to the excessive inclination of the tower and military reasons such as the declining of Pisa in favour of other
emerging neighbouring republics such as the Republic of Florence. In 1272 a tilt of 0,2 was registered.
3- Lastly, between 1360 and 1370 the belfry was added and with that concluded the tower's construction with
a tilt of 1 3', something perfectly visible from the ground.

Second step
1272 - 1278

Third step
1360 - 1370
1 3

0,2

First step
1173 - 1178

B
STRUCTURE
The tower consists of a hollow cylinder called "canna" surrounded by six loggias with columns. This columns
emerge from the basement ("tamburo") and lean on the foundations. The spiral staircase go up throw the loggia
until the belfry.
The first floor consists on a basement of blind arches with 15 columns and the other six stories have an external
colonnade, finishing in a dome which allows the entrance to the belfry.
The structure follows the "filling" technique, what consists in three layers elements: the outside and the inside
face of the stone walls and the central core made of concrete. The structural elements were: 4000 stone blocks for
the facade, 180 columns for the loggias, 15 half-columns for the basement and 12 columns for the belfry.
Used materials:
-Marble of San Giuliano: used in the internal and external faces of the walls and in columns and other
structural elements.
-Granodiorite of Elb's island: used in the half-columns of the base.
-Calcarenite Panchina: used for concrete aggregates.

GENERAL DATA
Piazza dei Miracoli's elevation

8 metres

Height

55,863 metres. 9 stories

External diameter of the base

15,484 metres

Internal diameter of the base

14,736 metres

Weight

14.700 metric tones

Wall thickness in the base

6 metres

Tilt's direction

1272-1997 South, 1173-1250 North

Number of bells

Number of steps

294

Data taken from: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_de_Pisa

c
PROBLEMS EMERGING
Just with the final of the first step the tower started to tilt imperceptibly throw the north. This was due to a bad
and soft soil, which over time also provoked the sinking of the cathedral (nowadays it is still sunken, but due to
its big surface it less obvious than the tilt of the tower).
The fact of adding more floors and more weight just accelerated the process of tilting. In the year 1278 an inclination on 0,6 was registered and increased until in 1285 reached the number of 1,1 throw the north. The
stoppage of works allowed the ground to settle and the tower not to collapse.
With the addition of the belfry the constructors tried to give the tower the appearance of verticality, raising the
support of the belfry in the most sunken side putting more mortar. This finished on an increase of the tilting, this
time throw the south, reaching a 1,36 inclination from the vertical.
Few years after the works culmination, many stone elements had to be substituted due to the deterioration they
presented. They were substituted by Carrara's white marble.

DATE

WEIGHT (tones)

TILT (grades)

1173 to 1178

94,8

1272 to 1278

137,28

00611

1285

137,28

10644

1360 to 1370

144,53

13639

1758

144,53

44950

1911

144,53

51446

1999

144,53

53251

Data taken from: Missouri University of Science and Technology. Scholars' Mine
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D
DIAGNOSTIC
The main problem of the tower is related to the ground where it lays.
During the investigations works, they discovered that the tower started to tilt from the beginning of its construction. This was found out as layers of squashed masonry were found all along the building which were there
due to the intention of workers to correct the inclination, even when it was being built. Till that moment, all the
repairing works had been done without surely knowing which was the real problem.
The form of movement consists in the phenomenon of leaning instability rather than an imminent collapse.
Leaning instability of a tall structure occurs at a critical height when the overturning moment generated by a
small increase in inclination is equal to or larger than the resisting moment generated by the foundations. No
matter how carefully the structure is built, once it reaches the critical height the smallest perturbation will induce
leaning instability.
The engineers reported the reasons of the sinking as a combination of the tower's dimensions and a weak kind
of soil. It was falling and it could collapse in any moment, but it was impossible to certainly know when, even a
storm or a earthquake could finish it.
The height of the tower from the base is of 58 metres and 54,6 metres from the ground level. It has a surface of
285 m2 and the average pressure it does on the ground is of 514 KN/m2.
Last investigations have shown that
the tower started it's sinking due to a
weak clay layer located at a 11 metres
of deepness under the terrain surface.
The soil is an unequally distributed
composition of clays under a sandy
base-floor. This explains the different
resistances of the ground and why
the tower tilted also unequally.

Data taken from: Missouri University of Science

and Technology

Horizon A; consists of slightly clayey and sandy yellow silt with interbedded lenses and layers of sand and clay. It is worth mentioning that
at the bottom of this fonnation a layer of medium uniform grey sand is encountered. Based on the results of numerous shallow borings and
static cone penetration tests (CPT) it appears that the thicness of this layer decreases moving southwards.
Such fonnation is covered by a = 3 m thick layer of top soil containing archaeological findings whose age covers a range from the 8th century
B.C. up to the 5th century A.C., extends to elev. -7.0 below m s.l ..

Horizon B; predominantly clayey, can be subdivided in the following four layers:

- layer B1; from elev. approximately -7.0 to -18.0 below m.s.l., upper clay, named locally Pancone clay;
- layer~; from elev. -18 to -22.5, intermediate clay;
- layer B3; from elev. -22.5 to -24.5, intermediate sand;
- layer B4; from elev. -24.5 to -37.0, lower clay .

Horizon C; slightly silty sand, which extends at least to a depth of 65 to 70 m below G.L. depth of 120m reached during the geotechnical
investigation. At greater depth a further cohesive fonnation is known to occur.
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e
interventions

1817

2 British Architects measure the inclination of the tower (5 south).

1838

Arch. Alessandro Della Gherardesca excavated "El Catino".

1859

French Rohault Fleury shows that the excavation of Gherardesca increased the speed of
inclination (0.5 south).

1911

It is started the measuring with Theodolite.

1928

Four points of vigilance

1934

Instruments installed to measure the tournament N-S and E-O. Also 361 holes were drilled
in the masonry of the tower and filled with concrete to strengthen it. The result is the
opposite than expected and increases the speed of inclination.

1990

Pisa tower is closed for government orders

1992

Steel tendons are placed around the tower for the 2nd floor, this cracks were closed reducing
the possibility of a deplome.

1993

It is performed a ring of concrete in the basement that will work as a new fundation and
where the counterweights will be placed in the north ( January of 1994). Inclination of 52

1994

Inclination of 52

1995

It was decided to remove the counterweights and begin to freeze the ground in preparation
for the placement of new tension.

1996

Test "soil extraction" is successfully completed, to reduce the tilt.

Later the work was stopped for political reasons.

1998

Installation of new tensors to the tower as prevention

1999

It is starting the careful soil removal in February. In June the inclination incressed. The
14 of September started the removal of the counterweights.

e.1 EXCAVATION OF THE BASEMENT (1838)

The first big actuation which affected the tower's stability was carried out by the architect Alessandro Della
Gherardesca in 1838. He dug a walk path around the
base of the tower to make the foundations visible. This
provoked a flooding around thereabout, which increased
its inclination, reaching more than 5 throw the south.
Anyway, this provided more accurate and technical
data about the tower's problems and the basement's
characteristic. It also refuted the epoch's theory according to which the bell tower was built inclined since its
origin.

"El Catino" (1838)

Arch. Alessandro Della Gherardesca excavated "El Catino".

e. 2 FIRST RESEARCH (1964)

To prevent the drop of the tower, in 1964 the Italian government asked for the collaboration of a group of
engineers, mathematics and historians.
However their work, the Tower of Pisa was closed to the public in January 1990 to prevent more deterioration.
This intervention resulted on a more accurate information but no physical acts.

e. 3 FIRST ATTEMPT (1992)

In 1992 the maintenance works started. At that moment it was obvious that some zones of the tower's structure
were very stressed, what could provoke the failure of the masonry. A provisional system of strengthening was put
on the place to ensure the structure of the tower.
The system consisted in the hooping of the critical zones using prestressed steel bars. Steel wires were tied
around the second floor of the tower (which was the most critical section) managing to close cracks and reducing the risk of collapse. This wires perform a slight circular precompression what prevents from the buckling of
the stones and improves the resistance to vertical compression. At the same time, metal frame were located in
the staircase.
It was a completely removable system and in fact in January 2001 it was removed.

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e. 4 BASEMENT WORKS (1993-1994)

Temporary stabilisation of the foundation was achieved during the second half of 1993 by the application of
600 tons of lead weights on the north side of the foundations with a post-tensioned removable concrete ring
cast around the base of the tower at ground level.

Lead counterweight on the North Side.

The actions were completely successful, reducing the inclination of the tower by about 12mm. What was even
more important, application of the counterweights halted the steady inclination of the tower towards the south,
which until then had proceeded at a rate of increase of the tilting of about 1mm per year.

Cross-section in the plane of

maximum inclination, situation
in year 1993.

Motion of Tower foundation

during steady creep (gradually
accelerates) - Burland, Viggiani
(1994).

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e. 5 SECOND COUNTERWEIGHTS AN ANCHORS (1995)

In September 1995 the load was increased to 900 tons in order to control the accelerating southward movements
of the tower during an unsuccessful attempt to replace the unsightly lead weights with temporary ground anchors.
The reasons for this attempt were mainly it's advantage of being more efficient and above all, of being invisible.
The main difficulty of this solution was how to create new prestressed ring beam to transfer the force from the ten
anchors to the base of the tower. To be invisible from the outside, this beam had to be built below the floor of the
Catino, for this reason it was necessary to dig around the base of the tower until reaching the ground water level.
The first excavation works brought to light the waterproof layer of 80-90 cm of grout and covered with San Giuliano marble done in 1934 and hadn't been documented in any report. Excavation then proceeded by cutting the
concrete bed.
The other problem of this works was the strength of the wire between the concrete ring and the ten anchors. This
was very uncertain and difficult to calculate. Finally the idea was abandoned.

e. 6 UNDEREXCAVATION (1995-1996) I
At this stage, the idea of slightly reducing the inclination of the Tower by means of controlled ground extraction under the north side of foundation began to be more attractive. The advantages include its non-invasive
nature to the foundations of the Tower and the high degree of control that it provided.
This method, known as underexcavation, gradually evolved. It included installing a number of soil extraction
tubes adjacent to the north side of the foundation. The method was originally proposed by Terracina (1962) for
Pisa and had been successfully used previously to reduce the damaging differential settlements within the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. But using it on a Tower that was on the point of falling over was very different.
Over a number of years the method was studied. They
discovered that extracting soil from below the foundations, the response of the tower is always positive as long
as they did from behind a critical line. This critical line is
located about half a radius from the northern edge of the
foundation.

Tool for ground extraction

Following a prolonged phase of calculations and small-scale experiments, it was decided to launch a large-scale
trial in the Piazza dei Miracoli. The main purpose of the large-scale trials was to develop the drilling technology
for soil extraction. A drill was developed which consisted of a hollow-stemmed continuous flight auger housed
inside a rotating 168 mm diameter casing. The arrangement permits the drill to be advanced with minimum
disturbance to the surrounding ground.
The complete system consisted in a circular plinth of reinforced concrete, 7 metres of diameter, instrumentation
had been installed in the subsoil as well as at the contact surface between the plinth and the ground.

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This system consisted of a daily report from the site to the responsible engineer of the response of the foundation
to the previous days soil extractions. The responsible engineer then issued a signed document in which the
previous days response was summarized and analysed, the objectives of the coming days soil extraction were set
out and instructions given for the locations and volumes of the next soil extractions.
The large-scale underexcavation proof run from September 1995 to August 1996, was fully successful and
convinced even the most sceptics that it was time to apply this technique to the tower.

e. 7 ADDITIONAL SAFEGUARD STRUCTURE (1996-1997)

During the restoration works, two structures were built behind the Opera Primaziale and behind building that
abuts the northern side of Piazza dei Miracoli.
This structures held two coil steel cables and each 50 mm of diameter, affixed to the Tower at the third-storey
floor.
Anyway, stabilization of the Tower by soil excavation was concluded without accident. The safeguard system
never had to work.

e. 8 MASONRY (1997-2000)
Masonry had been investigated for a long period of time, searching if it would be one of the possible raisons of
the tower's collapse. Finally it was discovered that only a delimited part of the masonry was in danger. The restoration works had to accomplish with safety considerations and respect for the integrity of the monument.

The result consisted in cement grouting and insertion of reinforcing bars

to connect the inner and outside
facings of the Tower. The radial bars
connecting the facings were placed by
drilling the masonry from the interior
and were anchored, following tensioning, by creating a special niche in the
inside facing of the tower. In this niche
a nut and a washer held the bar. All
the bars extended from 10 to 20 cm
from the external face of the Tower.
Temporary stabilization of the masonry with light circunferential pretensioning.

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e. 9 UNDEREXCAVATION (1998-2001) II
In August 1998 it was agreed to carry out limited soil extraction from beneath the tower with a view to observing
its response. On 9th February 1999 the first soil extraction took place. The tower slowly began to rotate
northwards. When the northward rotation had reached about 0,8 the preliminary soil extraction was stopped.
Northward rotation continued at a decreasing rate until October 1999.

Holes for preliminary underexcavation.

The success of the preliminary underexcavation confirmed that it was safe to undertake soil extraction over the
full width of the foundation. Between December 1999 and January 2000, 41 extraction holes were installed north
of the Tower at 0.5 metres spacing with a dedicated auger and casing in each hole. Full underexcavation commenced on February 2000 and the Tower was steered northwards in a remarkably straight path. Towards the end of
May 2000 progressive removal of the lead ingots was commenced. Although this resulted in an increase of overturning moment the soil extraction continued to be effective.

Holes for massive underexcavation.

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On 16th January 2001 the last lead ingot was removed from the post-tensioned concrete ring and after that only
limited soil extraction was undertaken. In the middle of February 2001 the concrete ring itself was removed and
at the beginning of March progressive removal of the augers and casings commenced with the holes being filled
by a bentonitic grout. The final extraction and auger removal took place on 6th June 2001.999.

e. 10 ADDITIONAL FOUNDATION STABILIZATION WORKS (2000-2002)

In addition to reducing the inclination of the Tower, two other permanent foundation stabilisation measures
have been carried out:

-The connexion of the ancient

concrete ring around the catino with
the masonry foundation of the tower
using stainless steel reinforcement. It
has also been strengthened by circumferential post-tensioning bars. The
solution adopted for reinforcement
consisted in construction of a reinforced concrete ring on the top of the wall
connected to the underlying wall and
the foundation plate. As a result, the
effective area of the foundations has
been substantially increased thereby
increasing the factor of safety against
leaning instability. Construction of
the ring took place in March-June
2000.
Structural connection of concrete ring to the Tower foundation.

-The seasonal fluctuating water table during intense periods of rain was the main factor responsible for this continuing movement. It is also of significance that, apart from these intense periods of rain, the average ground water
levels close to the South side of the Tower are 200 mm to 300 mm higher than those to the North. This difference
generates a small, but not negligible stabilising moment for the Monument that is so close to falling over.
To minimise this effect it was necessary to eliminate the fluctuations of the water table and, with this objective,
a drainage system was installed consisting of three wells sunk on the north side with radial sub-horizontal drains
running into them from below the north side of the catino. The drainage system was implemented in May 2002.
It was the end of the restoration works.

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Control of GWL on North Side a) Plan view, b) Cross-section.

During the underexcavation works 38 cubic metres of soil were removed from below the tower's basement. With
this, they manage to re-establish the inclination of the year 1700, 3.99 metres from the vertical, declaring the
tower stable for 300 at least more years.

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PERSPECTIVES OVER TIME

While research of the Tower continues, the question is how the Tower will behave in future. An unequivocal
answer is not possible:
Optimistic Scenario. The phenomenon of the leaning instability has been stopped, continuing rotation ceases,
except for some minor movements caused by the seasonal oscillations of the ground water and of the effects of the
solar radiation on the masonry. This scenario implies that the dominant mechanism driving the leaning instability
was fluctuations of the ground water levels.
Pessimistic Scenario: After the completion of time eects of the underexcavation, the Tower will remain
motionless for a period estimated as a few decades, followed by a possible resumption of the southward rotation.
Initially this southward rate of rotation will be very much less than the 0,6 per year that existed before the stabilisation works. However the rotation rate will gradually increase and may approach again, after a very long time, a
value close to 6. However, considering that the stabilisation works brought the tower inclination back to the
situation that existed at the beginning of the XIX century, the authors believe that the period of time for the tower
to return to its 1993 inclination will be at least 200 years.
After many centuries of extensive and different works to rebuild and stabilize this monument, the 15st December
of 2000, the tower of Pisa could finally open its doors to public entrance.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://materconstrucc.revistas.csic.es/index.php/materconstrucc/article/viewFile/396/442
http://noticias.arq.com.mx/Detalles/16488.html#.VrHm-rIrLIV
http://graficos.lainformacion.com/arte-cultura-y-espectaculos/monumentos-y-patrimonio-nacional/como-se-estabilizo-la-torre-de-pisa_yGXzZCdHjHHneZ7Pcmc2m7/
http://www.scienceinschool.org/node/4139
http://geotecnia-sor.blogspot.it/2012/03/historia-de-la-geotecnia-08-la.html
http://www.marcofavaretti.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RIG_1994_3_179.pdf
http://www.corriere.it/cultura/11_aprile_22/gasperetti-torre-pisa-fine-restauro_dc6d923e-6cdc-11e0-902f-2f9ba9bc9f1b.shtml
S. Barandoni, I Gherardeschi. Una famiglia di artisti, in Alessandro Gherardesca
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Raffaelo Bartelletti, 2004
John B. Burland, Michele B. Jamiolkowski, Carlo Viggiani, Leaning Tower of Pisa: Behaviour after Stabilization
Operations

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Pablo Arregui Alonso

Elvira Carrin Meroo
Consolidamento (A. Anzani)
Politecnico di Milano