Model Tests on Granular Pile Anchor and Helical Anchor: A Comparative Study

Helical anchors (HAs) are widely used as a tension resistance foundation technique. A relatively new anchor technique called granular pile anchor (GPA), an economical anchoring method, can be implemented in the field without sophisticated machinery. The laboratory model tests were conducted to compare the uplift capacity of GPA with the HA in medium dense sand. The influence of the number of anchor plates and the inter-plate distance on the uplift performance of the GPA was also assessed. The results indicated that GPA performed better than the HA. The uplift performance of GPA and HA improved with additional anchor plates/helix plates. When compared to HA, the GPA with an embedment ratio of 7.5 outperformed the GPA with an embedment ratio of 5 and 10. The optimum number of anchor plates was found to be two for the GPA. The optimum anchor plate spacing for GPA was observed to be 3D and 2D for the double and triple anchor plate GPA, respectively.