ABSTRACT
Wat Krasai is a brick pagoda of approximately 27 m in height and was built during Ayutthaya Dynasty at Ayutthaya, Thailand. The brick pagoda leans to the north. The cause of this tilt is thought to be the differential settlement of the foundation ground. In 2013, restoration work was carried out on this temple, and the base of the pagoda buried in the soil was restored. Furthermore, the lower half of the pagoda was covered with new bricks, and the total weight of the pagoda after restoration is estimated to be 1.36 times that before restoration. In 2020, seven years after the restoration work, there was a gap of 49 mm between the restored base and the main body of the pagoda, and the surface of the base was cracked. For the conservation of this pagoda, it is necessary to clarify the deformation mechanism of the base of the pagoda on soft ground. In this study, a series of 3D FEM simulations was performed to simulate the differential settlements of the pagoda after the construction to the present. Furthermore, additional analysis has been carried out to estimate the structural performance in the future. The results show that the differential settlement does not stop nor decrease, but only increases in the future.
