Experimental study on the performance of plate anchor retaining walls

Plate anchors are one the most important retaining objects that are widely used in onshore and offshore structures. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of plate anchor retaining walls based on experimental modelling. The evaluation includes the assessment of the effects of the square and circular forms of the anchor plates, their dimensions and the reinforcement configuration. To visualise the critical slip surface occurring in the soil surrounding the wall and the effects of these parameters on the failure wedge, the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was applied. The results showed that the highest bearing capacity and the lowest horizontal displacement of the wall were in the 5-anchors, the diamond and the square reinforcement configurations in that order. The diamond configuration with one less reinforcement showed a relatively lower difference from the results found for the 5-anchors configuration. The circular anchor plates provided higher stability in the wall. According to the results of the PIV analysis, the particle strain on the critical slip surface was smaller in the 5-anchors and the diamond reinforcement configurations than in the square reinforcement configuration. The values of the particle strain in the circular plates were smaller than in the square anchor plates.