stahilator Tomasz Najder; PhD, Civ. Eng. Stabilator AB Stockholm/Sweden THE STRENGTHENING WORKS IN THE WESTERN WING OF MALBORK MIDDLE CASTLE Summary Problems of a structural nature connected with the Western Wing of Malbork Castle in northern Poland have probably persisted since the construction of the castle was completed, that is to say for 650 years. The tying of the boldly designed upper structure to its much poorer quality foundation that had also been weakened by the decaying process was effected in 1990 in necessity of prompt strengthening of the structure. The design finally chosen for this project was a concept proposed by a Swedish company, Stabilator AB. The idea was to transfer the weight of the Western Wall to new injected piles using a girt beam system embracing both sides of the base of the wall in the form of a clamp. It was expected to achieve satisfactory pressing of the beams to the walls by means of prestressed horizontal anchorages installed in boreholes previously coredrilled crosswise to the wall. These works were carried out by Stabilator AB and successfully finished in September 1992.208 1.0 Preface In 1992, the Swedish company Stabilator AB, a member of the Skanska Group, carried out the first part of the foundation strengthening works on the Western Wing of the Middle Castle in Malbork. This was one of the most significant projects of its kind carried out in Poland, and also one of the most meaningful assign- ments in the company's 27-year history. 2.0 History of the castle Construction of the castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork started in 1274 and continued in different stages for nearly 130 years. The entire castle complex consists of the following sec- tions: the High Castle, the Middle Castle with the Great Refec- tory, the Palace of the Grand Masters and the front castle lying at the foot of the section named the Low Castle. The Middle Castle and the Low Castle comprising stores and workshops were completed after the building of the High Castle. On the side where the Western Wing now stands there were formerly defence walls with loop-holes, dating from about 1300. Up till now the fragments of these walls have still existed - unseen due to their being incorporated in the cellars of the wing which was added later. An interesting point is that the defence wall inclines to a noticeable degree, which suggests that its original builders also had problems with stability. The extension of the castle in connection with the building up of its Western Wing was the reason for the demolition of the old defence wall. The wall of the Western Wing protruded towards the Nogat river due to its being positioned on the original moat line. The works connected with the Western Wing started in about 1318. The mass of the building was situated on the edge of a natural sandy hill which is the site of the High Castle and also today's Middle Castle courtyard foundation. The Eastern Wall was founded on the above-mentioned hill too, and the Western Wall at the foot of a slope in the area of the sandbank deposited by the overflow branch of the Nogat River. The decision to strengthen the original foundation of the Western Wall was based on the realisation of the importance of having the appropriate foundations on such weak ground.sn 101 (9798 stabilator . Results obtained from excavation pits carried out in 1990 con- firmed conclusions that the Teutonic Knights had also made some attempts to strengthen the ground on which the foundation stood. For a distance of 3.0 m, which is the width of the wall base, two rows of short oaken piles were driven at intervals of 1 m. The piles were bound together with longitudinal beams, the entire structure forming a kind of frame. A thousand short wooden stakes were driven close to each other within the borders of this frame- work. These stakes are not a kind of typical piling, but remain the still-in-use way of sand compaction. On the foundation, topped with wooden grillwork, large stones were placed to form a rubble wall with the joints in its upper parts filled with lime mortar. Higher up, the wall of bricks with lime mortar was erected to a height of 17 m above the actual ground level. After the structure was built some problems were bound to occur due to the fact that the internal geometry of the structure had been changed. According to conclusions drawn from architectural research, high rooms with stellar vaults had previously been built on the lowest floor, the vault resting on three columns made of stone similar to the ones in the Great Refectory one floor above. That design was altered by counterbracing the building skeleton with the third wall positioned along its centre line. The height of the rooms was divided into two, making two floors each half the original height with barrel-type vaults this time. The rigid block of the heating stove supplying the Great Refectory with heat was also built there. On the level of the first floor of the building (viewed from the Nogat River side), which is the same as the east side courtyard level, the biggest, most presentable room was built, extra- ordinarily light and of bold design. The vault of this room which is constructed in a very difficult and complicated way, with an almost palm-shaped form, rests on only three octagonal, very slender pillars of granite. Rows of large windows with stone tracery decoration in the Western and Eastern Walls reflect the Gothic-style lightness of interior decoration typical of the great cathedrals built at that time. This daring architecture caused permanent problems. The first documentary evidence dates from 1565. At thet time cracks appeared on the north wall of the Great Refectory necessitating its re- erection. About 1860 cracks reactivated to such an extent that special ties had to be installed, located in the attic of the Western Wing, and in 1865 a stone counterfort had to be built at the foot of the wall near the Kitchen. At that time the first pits were excavated for research purposes.a0 (2703 The Western Wing survived the disaster of the Second world War, but unfortunately in 1959 its roofs were gutted by fire. The original rafter frame made of wooden beams was replaced by steel lattice girders. The roof, which once rested on the internal part of the porch topping the walls, was moved to rest on the outside of the porch. Up to now there has been controversy as to how these changes affect the magnitude of the expansion forces in the wall. In consequence of the progressive degradation, various explanations of the causes of the new cracks still forming were put forward in the following years. The cracks continued to appear in the walls and vaults, and there was a permanent increase in the rate of settlement. Several concepts for the preservation of the structure were implemented in the following years, often only in an intermittent way and sometimes not even reaching completion. The most often applied method was to fasten the structure with ties to the level of the cellars, the Great Refectory and the loft. In the latter part of the eighties the cracks in the transversal walls and vaults reached a width of a few centimetres. The Western Wall fell off the remaining part of the structure, pulling down with it some parts of the transversal walls. In effect the Great Refectory vault remained suspended in the air and it became necessary to underpin it immediately. The ongoing process of settlement in the Western Wall and also the inclination of the wall activated in 1990-1991 (fig. 1) meant that the Western Wall was in imminent danger of collapsing. 3.0 The concept of preservation of the Western Wing The analysis of the available archival evidence and the actual condition of the building structure comprising the Great Refectory made it possible to attempt the job of reconstructing the long history of problems concerning the Western Wing. Its location on the edge of an upland with one of the walls (the western one) situated on weaker ground gave rise to long-lasting consequences. The foundation was loaded with approx. 100 tons per running meter of the weight of the wall with countertie-like acting vaults and roof, overloading the edge of the foundation from the very start with a peak value reaching 600 kPa. The process of disintegration was hastened by old age in combination with the decaying of the pile tops after lowering of the groundwater level due to the regulation works on the Nogat River carried out at the beginning of this century.190103 (67.03) stabilator The half of the building facing the water side kept on moving slightly but steadily and detaching from the remaining part. The Western Wall has begun to settle in a downward direction and to incline from the vertical. Attempts to cope with this problem by installing ties in the loft have halted the inclining process but at the same time have caused @ threatening bending tendency in the slim pillars between the windows in the Great Refectory. Earlier attempts to save the structure have for many reasons not got to the root of the problem, i.e. strengthening of the weakened foundation of the Western Wall. The concepts considered in 1991 had to be carefully analysed from the point of view of reality and efficiency as well as with reference to reducing the unavoidable state of destruction that would accompany the initial stage of the structural strengthening works. The tender-winning design presented the concept of applying micropiles. It was planned to join the micropiles by pile capping concrete beams on both sides of the Western Wall and to instal a special kind of injected TNA system pile driven with the aid of special drilling methods on the inside and outside of the wall. The piles had to be driven as close to the face of the wall as possible, which meant in practice at a distance of 60 cm at intervals of 0.8 - 1.2 m, and to a depth of 12.0 m (see fig. 2). A load-bearing part of the piles extended below the level of the original foundation base, in sand layers. Later on, excavation in sections down to 2.0 m below the actual ground level had to be carried out, and at intervals of 1.0 m the wall had to be rebored using the shockless method of core drilling. Bundles of pre- stressed cables (lines) had to be pulled through the bored holes, after which solid girt beams appropriately reinforced were cast on both sides of the wall. After concrete hardening, the bundles of cables were prestressed, thus pressing the beams to the wall and functioning together to form a clamp. The placing of this clamp on new piles transfers the load from vaults, roof and wall onto these piles, so that the entire load is removed from the old foundation. 4.0 The execution of the works First of all load testing of the piles was carried out. The load- bearing part of the piles was about 6.0 m in length and the piles were 30 cm in diameter. The load-bearing capacity was 84.0 and 89.0 tons. After reaching the working load, settlements have not exceeded 5.0 mm. During execution of the works, three additionalstabilator test loadings of "production piles" have been carried out and the xesults obtained showed nearly the same load values. Before starting the drilling works, the structure had been clamped with prestressed ties of GWS system type on the level of the Kitchen and the bottom edge of the Great Refectory windows. Similar ties were placed in the northern part of the loft of the wing. To avoid buckling of the pillars between the windows in the Great Refectory, protective strengthening of the pillars was performed. Drilling works for the piling were done using pipes with diameters of 140 mm or 168 mm and a minimum amount of drilling fluid. In spite of very careful working procedures, it was not possible to prevent additional settlements of an average of about 15 mm. Drilling had to be done through fine, single-grained sand which appeared to be very sensitive as regard the liquefaction phen- omenon. Previous doubts concerning the application of the jet- grouting injection system as being hazardous for the structure turned out to be justified, as the structure would probably not survive this system of underpinning. Some problems appeared while drilling stone, old piles and wooden beams, but not to the extent expected. Core drilling through the walls did not prove to be a problem, as the walls were of continuous type, and the quality of the mediaeval bricks and mortar was surprisingly high. Problems in connection with piling inside the cellars were due to the low height of the rooms, i.e. 1.4 m in the axis of drilling and also the inevitable necessity of operating the equipment among a "forest" of shores supporting the vault. In such conditions a mini-drilling rig (Stabilator's "cellar mouse") was invaluable equipment. The sequence and progress of works as well as their intensity and division into stages were continuously modified with the aid of a measuring and warning computer system. This system provided conti- nuous measurement of structure settlements, measurement of forces in temporary steel counterforts, temporary ties and roof trusses and also took measurements of the relative displacements of the Western Wall towards the Eeastern one (convergence measurements). The whole system included dial gauges installed on the cracks by scientists from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy of Cracow. Accurate levelling of the Western Wall including changes in in- clination was also carried out.19201 6703) 5.0 Final conclusion The strengthening works were started in December 1991 by instal- ling the temporary supports. In January 1992, load testing of the piles was carried out. The actual underpinning works started in March and they were timely (with a break for holidays) finalized in September 1992. After the termination of the works, observations of the settlement of the building indicated that it had increased by about 1.0 mm during the first three months. However, a precision levelling carried out in May 1993 showed that, in comparison to measurements from November 1992, the settlements and the horizontal movements of the Western Wall had ceased completely (cf Fig. 1). In addi- tion, there was no cracking whatsoever to be observed in the plaster of Paris seals attached to the walls of the building. During the second stage of the works, the remaining section of the Western Wall was supported in its entire length towards the north together with the Chickenfoot Tower and a part of the Northern Wall of the Western Wing. These works were carried out between October 1992 and May 1993. In the next stages, the vaults will be renovated and the brick walls will be strengthened. The scope of this task will require many years of work. It seems that the most magnificent medieval hall in Malbork Castle will be closed to visitors for a long time to come. However, the observations of the Western Wing so far allow for careful optimism, as it seems as though the strengthening opera~ tions of this priceless monument have proven successful. Malbork, June 1993aoe 1988 see ise AS93, EN | | i MS o | i ' { \ | | vl | | \ | 10 1 : | | i i - | | | | 1 | I | | | pertos 0 i Oo a Fig. 1 Increment of settlements at the Western Wall in the sector of the Great Refectory, from before the start of the strengthening works until after their completion.~20m BRICK WALL PRESTRESSING LINES TYPE VSL IN PLasTiC = ie Ana THE GIRT BEAM i i | | CONCRETE K50 DRAIN PIPE COREDRILL HOLE @ 85 mm cic 1.0m WOODEN GRILLWORK WOODEN PILES eel ~ THE MEDIEVAL ; i Founparton, MICROPILE TYPE TNA cc 120 cm; ¢ 30 cm ‘BRICK DEBRIS, LOAM BACKFILL (HISTORICAL LAYER) DRILLING TUBE 6 168 mm DEFORMED BAR TYPE GWS 6 36 mm GROUNDWATER LEWE Sad ~ 2WG MICROPILE TYPE TNA cc 85 cm; 9 40 cm VERTICAL RAKE 10:1 THE ZONE OF BEARING PILE MANTLE || Fig-2 =10,80 if The underpinning of the Western 1_ 7 I! \ wall - typical cross section | THE z0NE ade