THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA

Scope
Introduce the student of Soil Mechanics in a famous project that involves many points of view to solve
a tilt in a building.

Aims and Goals

Understand the challenge of Geotechnical Engineering
Communicate the ideas, and show a good understanding of the topic
Identify the linked between theory and engineering practice

Description
The leaning tower of Pisa begin its construction on early 1173, since then the tower has faced a
leaning that gives its famous name. Several actions have taken place to solve this problem, however, no
one appears to be the one. As a Civil Engineer, you are required to analyze all the ideas and activities
that engineers made in the location of the tower; make a report synthesizing the better ones and explain
the engineering theory behind them, with the objective of scoring your work the conclusions and
suggestions of your team are going to be valuable.
The report length is no more than four pages and includes the same structure of a laboratory
report, we encourage you to include summarize tables to show the activities that has been done, and
select two main solutions to explain the theory (based on scientific literature). If you have some
questions the professor and the teaching assistants are willing to solve those.
Guideline
Background information
1. See the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trZgC8icFVU
2. Read the article The enigma of the leaning tower of Pisa the sixth Spencer J. Buchanan
Lecture by John B. Burland.
3. Read this article http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianmag/one-time-they-
closedleaning-tower-pisa-because-it-leaned-too-much-180961657/
4. And this one too http://www.italy24.ilsole24ore.com/art/arts-and-leisure/2017-01-16/the-
towerof-pisa-not-only-leans-but-rotates--112415.php?uuid=AEnHpl
Creative part
1. Inside the suggestion chapter of your report, show your opinion
about how to improve the stabilization process of the leaning tower.

2. Answer this questions in the suggestion chapter

About what kind of soils was founded the tower? Do you believe
that these soils were proper for the construction?
Highlight the main facts for the stabilization of the tower.
Do you believe computer models were for utility to solve the
leaning problem of the tower?
If the tower of Pisa were constructed in 2015, what kind of
foundation you think would be use?

Teams of 4 people.
The Tower of Pisa not only leans but it rotates as
well
The Tower of Pisa is one of Italys and the worlds most famous monuments. What appears to us
today as admirable architectural consistency (one of the reasons it became a major icon of Italy and
medieval Europe) was actually built in the course of two centuries: the first four orders (or floors) in
just five years, from 1173 to 1178. These were followed by a lengthy hiatus lasting nearly a century,
until 1272, when construction was resumed.

In six years, the entire tower save for the belfry right at the top that is, all of the seven orders or floors
was completed, prior to a new interlude of approximately 80 years. Finally, from 1360 to 1370, the
final stage of construction was finished, with the addition of the belfry.

Existing documents suffice to establish the various stages of the building process with reasonable
certainty, though not to record the reasons. In the case of cathedrals, construction work was often
interrupted owing to lack of funds; in this instance, however, it seems the main reason was another: the
Tower began to tilt, and concern that it might fall led to interrupting the work, which was resumed,
with numerous precautionary measures, after a century the first time, then after 80 years, the second.

By combining records, artistic renderings and clues from the Tower itself, we can say that after a first
stage in construction (1173-78), the Tower started to lean slightly northwards (that is, in the opposite
direction compared to today).

During the second stage (1272-1278), when builders attempted to compensate this inclination, the
Tower ended up leaning southwards, which may be why they decided not to start work on the belfry
right away. When this was built at last (once more, trying to compensate the slant), the Tower resumed
leaning southwards, as shown in several drawings and renderings and recorded by Vasari.

But why is it the Tower started leaning? Its enormous weight is only one of the factors. Another is a
fact ancient builders ignored. Greek geographer Strabo, writing of Pisa at the end of the first century
BCE, states that two rivers flowed together in the city: Arno and Auser.

Aerial photographs show that the Auser river (now called Serchio) changed its course several times,
though originally, in order to flow into the Arno, it must have run few feet from where the Tower was
built, centuries later.

Excavations in the piazza, which were needed before any consolidation work could be carried out, have
proven that there was an Etruscan settlement in that area (one that imported pottery from classic
Athens) and, later, a Roman settlement.

By now, we know the subsoil structure beneath the Tower through and through: a series of layers
typical of an alluvial plain, where sand and clay alternate and mingle. These layers have a peculiar
elasticity of their own and it is there where the Tower was built. Its movements over time in response
to various mechanical stresses and forces, from earthquakes to variations in seasons and temperatures,
even winds, should always be seen as the continuous interaction of the Tower with its subsoil.
Since 1911, the Towers gradient has regularly been measured according to consistent criteria, so from
then on, we've been able to judge its state of health. From 1991 to 1993, its inclination continued to
increase inexorably, twice as fast as it did before the 1930s.
In 1990, it grew by 6 arc second a year, corresponding to a 1.5 mm movement per annum at the top.

For a long time, it was believed the movement was due to the fact that the Tower tended to sink into the
soil more on its southern side. However, some extremely accurate surveys have found a surprising fact:
the Tower tends to revolve around a pivot center that is more or less on a level with the first cornice.

This leads to a condition geotechnical engineers call leaning instability. Above all, it entails an
important consequence: in its leaning movement, the Tower interacts with the layer of sand in the first
10 meters beneath its foundations, not with the clay deeper down.

ITALY EUROPE 24 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

One Time, They Closed the Leaning Tower of
Pisa Because It Leaned Too Much
Kat Eschner
A panoramic view of the "Square of Miracles," including the famed tower of Pisa. (Mystyslav
Chernov/Creative Commons)

smithsonian.com
January 6, 2017

This week in 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed for repairs. The problem: it was leaning too
much.

Today, the tower is back where it belongsnot straight, because what kind of person goes to visit the
Vertical Tower of Pisa?but leaning about 18 inches less than before. The 1990 closure was the first
time in the tower's long life that it was was closed for repair.

Few monuments have been studied as much by engineers as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, write
scholars Ronald I. Borja, Giovanni Calabresi, James K. Mitchell and Robert L. Schiffman.

The fact that the Leaning Tower of Pisa has even made it this far is a fortunate historical accident. The
tower was built over a period of 200 years, between 1173 and 1372 A.D.

While some architectural follies are the product of unforeseeable bouts of bad luck, the Leaning
Tower of Pisas signature tilt could have been avoided with better planning, writes Michael Arbeiter
for Mental Floss. A shallow foundation and the soft ground of Pisacomposed of sand, clay and
deposits from the Tuscan rivers Arno and Serchiowere too unstable to support the building even in
the early stages of its construction.

It was designed to be the third part of a cathedral complex, a white marble tower standing 185 feet
high. To put its height in perspective, thats one-third the height of the Washington monument, which,
at 555 feet high, remains in 2017 the worlds tallest stone structure.

At that point, fortunately for the landmark, war broke out between the Italian city-state of Pisa, where
the tower was being built, and Genoa. Almost 100 years passed before anyone worked on the tower
again, writes History.com, a delay that likely allowed the foundation to settle enough to prevent it from
falling over during construction.

Then in 1275 A.D., the next architects to take over the project added three additional floors that bent in
the opposite direction of the towers northward lean, reports the Getty. Alas, the added weight had
more impact than their intended fix, and the tower leaned even farther. The last part of the tower, the
belfry where the bell was housed, was finished by yet another architect, between 1350 and 1372 A.D.,
the museum reports.

"It took some 200 years to complete the Tower, but there were only about 20 years of actual work. Talk
about a nightmare construction project!" writes Alicia Ault for Smithsonian.com.
As a result of all this jostling, the tower now leans southward. Over the centuries, despite the efforts of
many, it leaned farther and farther, leading to the closure. The tower didnt reopen for 11 years, and
even then, it was still slowly tilting. Even now, Ault writes, the tower is imperceptibly on the move.

But although the tower is ever-shifting, in its lifetime its quirky architecture has been hugely beneficial
for Pisa and Italy. It's one of the nation's most distinctive tourist attractions, although you have to
imagine that the combined weight of the millions of tourists who have climbed the tower must have had
an impact on its lean.

If you visit Pisa today, you can climb its leaning tower and look out across Pisa as so many others have
done over the centuries. The challenge might be choosing which leaning tower to climb: because of the
regions soft ground, several other church towers in Pisa also lean, Arbeiter writes, although none so
dramatically.