Abstract
This study investigates the significance of the creep characteristic in the deformation behaviour of the Pisa Tower through the simulation of creep tests as well as plane strain analyses conducted under non-creep and creep conditions. Creep effects account for up to 1.7 degrees of tilting and one meter of settlement. In addition, creep increases the mean effective stresses and decreases the deviatoric stresses in the clay layers. An extensive model parameter sensitivity study shows that the deformation behaviour of the Tower is not controlled by any specific model parameter, but each model parameter becomes more sensitive under high stress level. The total tilt of 5.5 degrees could not be achieved by simply changing the values of model parameters. Other factors may have also contributed to the deformation of the tower, which could not be considered by the current model.
