Inclined Buildings _ Some Reasons and Solutions

[摘要] To straighten a leaning building is never easy. There are no standard solutions. On the other hand, there are several, usually historical, leaning structures which have not been rectified, mostly because in the current shape they are a touristic attraction - the best example being the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. This does not mean however that inclination of load bearing walls can be ignored. Even though in some cases the problem can be treated in terms of serviceability limit states (the deformation is only decreasing the comfort of 'normal use' of the building), in the other - it may be a signal of the forthcoming structural failure. The situation must always be treated individually - if the problem concerns a residential building, then cracks on the walls, not-opening doors or tilted ceilings, which often coincide with the leaning of the external walls, are always the reason of worry and such a building needs to be straightened. The reasons of the problem lie usually in uneven settlement of the ground, which in turn, may be caused by various problems, such as the presence of too soft, too weak, unconsolidated or expansive soils under the building, varying groundwater table, mining activity etc. Solving of the problem by just straightening the building is often not enough. To prevent further deformations a detailed analysis of the possible causes is necessary. Sometimes it may be helpful to review similar cases. The paper contains a general overview of selected inclined buildings: starting with the well-known historical examples and ending with individual houses from the Region of Silesia. Since the problem of instability mostly affects structures with critical height to width ratio, tall and narrow structures (towers) are dominating in the work. The aim of the study was to describe the reasons of the problems and present solutions that have been successfully applied and can be also useful to engineers and designers to prevent similar situations.

[发布机构] Department of Building Structures, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, ul. Akademicka 5, Gliwice; 44-100, Poland^1;Department of Geotechnics and Roads, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, ul. Akademicka 5, Gliwice; 44-100, Poland^2

[学科分类] 土木及结构工程学

[关键词] Further deformations;Ground water table;Leaning tower of Pisa;Load bearing walls;Residential building;Serviceability limit state;Standard solutions;Structural failure