Guided By: Presented By:

Fathima Thasneem Jishnu.C.J

Assistant Prof. Roll No:23
KMEA Engg College S7 Civil

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• One of the “SEVEN wonders of the World.”
• Located in PISA, Italy at the 'Piazza dei Miracoli'
square.
• Bell tower for the Cathedral.
• Construction of the tower lasted for almost 176
years.
• Construction was interfered by two long breaks.

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• Weight = 142MN
• Height of the centre
of gravity = 22.6m
• Overturning moment
=327MNm
• Average foundation
pressure=500 kPa

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• The Tower is built as a hollow masonry cylinder
surrounded by six colonnades with columns and
vaults rising from the base cylinder.

• The Tower commenced leaning southwards during

the second construction stage and thereafter its
inclination continued to increase.

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• Horizon A, about 10m thick, is composed of soft
estuarine deposits of sandy and clayey silts.
• Horizon B consists of soft sensitive normally
consolidated marine clay and extends upto a depth
of about 40m.
• Horizon C is dense marine sand extending to a
depth of about 60m.
• The contact between Horizon A and the marine clay
of Horizon B is dished beneath the Tower.

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• Testing showed that the inclining Tower was
affected by leaning instability- “a phenomenon
controlled by the stiffness of the soil rather than by
its strength”.
• Leaning instability occurs when a tall building,
having reached a certain critical height, experiences
an overturning moment that is greater than or equal
to the foundation moment resistance.

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• Primarily due to the location of the tower and the
instability of the ground underneath the foundation.
• The circular walls of the tower are weak.
• Wind forces.
• Earthquakes are another possible cause of stress on
the structure that could lead to collapse.

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• Temporary stabilization measures.

• Permanent stabilization measures.

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• Achieved by the application of 600t of lead weights
on the north side of the foundations via a post-
tensioned removable concrete ring cast around the
base of the Tower at plinth level.
• Reduced the overturning moment by about ten
percent.
• In September 1995 the load was increased to 900t in
order to control the accelerating southward
movement of the Tower .

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• Many possible methods of inducing controlled
subsidence of the north side were investigated.
• These included drainage beneath the north side
using wells, consolidation beneath the north side by
electro-osmosis and loading the ground around the
north side of the Tower by means of a pressing slab
loaded by ground anchors.
• Unfortunately none of these methods proved to be
satisfactory.

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• 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 attract the interest of the Engineers.
• This method, known as Under Excavation,
gradually evolved.
• The advantages include its non-invasive nature to
the fabric of the Tower and the high degree of day to
day control that can be exerted.

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• Involved the removal of small soil volumes from
underneath the elevated part of the foundation.
• Performed in two stages; first a preliminary
excavation, testing the effects of the procedure on
the Tower, and last a complete, final excavation.
• This preliminary under excavation was to be carried
out over a limited width of 6m north of the Tower
using twelve bore holes lined with 219mm diameter
casings.
• On 9th February 1999, in an atmosphere of great
tension, the first soil extraction took place.
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• The final under-excavation consisted of 41 holes.
• Extraction tubes had a diameter of 0.168 meters.
• The total amount of soil extracted gave a volume of
37.668 cubic meters.
• Full under excavation commenced on 21st February
2000 and the Tower was steered northwards in a
remarkably straight path.

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• A drill which consisted of a hollow-stemmed
continuous flight auger housed inside a contra-
rotating casing was used.
• Diameter of casing= 168mm.
• This arrangement permitted the drill to advance with
minimum disturbance to the surrounding ground.

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• Concrete ring was connected to the masonry
foundation of the Tower by means of stainless steel
reinforcement.
• To eliminate the fluctuations of the water table a
drainage system was installed consisting of three
wells sunk on the north side.

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• Categorised into the following two possible
scenarios:-

• Optimistic Scenario:-
• Implies that the dominant mechanism driving the
leaning instability was fluctuations of the ground
water level in Horizon A.

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• Pessimistic Scenario:-

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• Future behaviour of the Tower will depend to a large
extent on the continued effectiveness of the drainage
system on the north side.
• The tower is said to be safe and stable for another
200 years.

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• The foundation was only 3 meters deep and laid on
very soft soil.
• This could have been easily avoided by removing
soft soil and making the foundation deeper.
• Foundations of the Leaning Tower of Pisa were
stabilised using the method of under excavation.
• Drainage system has been successful in stabilising
the groundwater levels beneath the north side of the
Tower’s foundation.

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• John. B. Burland, Michele B. Jamiolkowski, Carlo
Viggiani, “Leaning Tower of Pisa: Behaviour after
Stabilization Operations”, International Journal of
Geoengineering Case Histories, Vol. 1, Issue 3 July
2009.
• M. Jamiolkowski and R. Lancellotta, “Leaning
Tower of Pisa- Updated Information” Proceedings:
Third International Conference on Case Histories In
Geotec:hnlcel Engineering, St. Louis, Missouri,
June 1-4, 1993, SOA 3.

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• Maria Kristiansen, “An under-excavation model for
The Leaning Tower of Pisa”, (TBA4900
Geotechnical Engineering, Master Thesis)
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering-
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
June 2012.
• The leaning tower of pisa-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning Tower Of Pisa.
• Failures- Tower of pisa,
http://failures.wikispaces.com/tower of pisa
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