Sand Deformations Around a Shallow Plate Anchor: Effect of Sand Properties

Plate anchors are among the most common types of anchor used in civil engineering construction as they represent an economical alternative to gravity and other embedded anchors for resisting uplift forces in both a marine and a land environment. Typically, such anchors are used to support transmission towers and to secure submerged pipelines, moorings and cables to the sea bed. Previous research into the uplift capacity of plate anchors embedded in sands has shown that two distinct categories of anchors can be identified: shallow anchors and deep anchors. The present paper deals only with shallow anchors. Stereophoto grammetric, a technique by which geometrical information is derived from a pair of negatives or photographs, has been used to study the effects of sand properties (grain size, grain shape and grading) on the displacement fields and monitor their development around a shallow plate anchor subjected to an uplift load. The investigation was carried out on a plate anchor embedded in sands with the following properties: Similar uniformity and mean grain size diameter but different shape, similar uniformity and shape but different mean grain size diameter similar shape and mean grain size diameter but different uniformity. It was found that the displacement fields are influenced by the shape of the sand grain and the sand grading. The magnitude of the sand displacements were also found to be regulated to a large extent by the sand relative density.

• INTRODUCTION

• PSEUDO STEREO PHOTOGRAMMETRY

• SOILS

• TESTING PROCEDURE

• DISCUSSION

• CONCLUSIONS

• REFERENCES