Performance of anchor in sand with different forms of geosynthetic reinforcement

This article investigates the uplift resistance of a model anchor embedded in sand by varying its density at four embedment depths (L/D = 1, 2, 3, and 4). Such different configurations of geosynthetic reinforcement as single-layer planar, double-layer planar, geocell, and geocell with basal reinforcement were used and the results were compared. The inclusion of reinforcement in all configurations led to greater values of the peak and residual pullout load than the anchor in sand at different densities. Of the reinforcement configurations used, a geocell placed at the top of the anchor was the most efficient. The shape of the uplifted soil mass by the anchor is a frustum of a cone with an apex angle approximately equal to ϕ′ of sand both in the sand bed without and with a geocell-encapsulated layer, except for the enlarged size of the uplifted mass for the anchor in the geocell-reinforced bed. The enlarged size is attributed to the wide slab response of the combined geocell composite anchor system. The hyperbolic stress–strain relation was used to predict the pre-peak phase of the load–displacement response and the relation thus obtained compared well with experimental data irrespective of the embedment ratio and relative densities of the sand bed.