Experimental and Analytical Study on Uplift Loading Capacity of Strip Plate Anchors Near Sand Slope

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the uplift behavior of horizontal strip plate anchors constructed at a distance to the slope crest. A series of uplift load tests was conducted in laboratory for scaled strip plate anchor models, which were buried in the horizontal ground or at different distances from a sand slope with various slope angles. Results imply that the distance from the anchor to the slope and the angle of the slope play an influential role in the failure mode and loading capacity. The loading mechanism of the strip plate anchor buried near a slope is equivalent to that of a strip plate anchor buried in horizontal ground when the edge-distance ratio reaches a critical value. The critical edge-distance ratio obtained by the proposed formula in this study is 0.9 or 1.9 for slope angles of 15° or 30°, respectively. Further, the geometric configuration of the failure surfaces can be approximated to be circular curves whose radius can be determined by the value of edge-distance ratio and slope angle. After that, an analytical method to calculate the uplift capacity considering the influence of edge-distance ratio and slope angle has been developed by using the limit-equilibrium method. All the error between the calculated results based on the theoretical solutions and the measurements from the laboratory tests is contained in 17.4% when the effect of sand dilatancy is considered.