Keying Behaviors of Strip Plate Anchors with Padeye Offset in Uniform Clay

Abstract

Plate anchors have great advantages that are useful in deep or ultradeep water mooring systems. The keying behaviors have a deep effect on the embedment loss and pullout capacity of strip plate anchors. In this paper, the effect of soil remolding on the keying behaviors of strip plate anchors is studied by large deformation finite-element (LDFE) analysis. First, the LDFE results are compared with centrifugal test results, theoretical solutions, and LDFE data from previous literature, showing good agreement. Then, a series of LDFE cases is studied to investigate the effects of the padeye offset, load eccentricity, soil sensitivity, and initial embedment depth on the embedment loss and pullout capacity of plate anchors during the keying process. The LDFE results show that different load eccentricity corresponds to different soil failure mechanisms, and both padeye offset and soil remolding will reduce the pullout capacity of plate anchors. Finally, an equivalent soil strength is introduced considering rate effect and soil remolding of clay. A combined factor and an equivalent ultimate pullout capacity are used to estimate the ultimate embedment loss and pullout capacity of strip plate anchors in uniform clay, respectively.