Stability of plate anchors in NC clay

Soil anchors are commonly used as foundation systems for structures requiring uplift or lateral resistances, such as transmission towers, sheet pile walls and foundations of floating offshore platforms. This paper applies displacement finite element analysis to estimate the ultimate pullout capacity of pre-embedded inclined strip anchors in normally consolidated (NC) clay. Results are presented in the familiar form of break-out factors, which are based on various soil strength profiles, anchor embedment ratios and pullout inclined angles. The influences of the soil self weight, soil strength gradient and anchor base type on the pullout capacity are discussed. The continuous pullout analysis, in which Remeshing and Interpolation Technique with Small Strain model (RITSS) is applied, shows that the ratio of the vertical stress to the soil shear strength plays an important role in the separation underneath the plate when vented base is assumed.