Joined Influences of Nonlinearity and Dilation on the Ultimate Pullout Capacity of Horizontal Shallow Plate Anchors by Energy Dissipation Method

Abstract

The ultimate pullout capacity (UPC) and the shape modification factors of horizontal plate anchors were calculated by using upper-bound limit analysis, in which the assumptions of both a nonlinear failure criterion and the nonassociated flow rule were made upon the soil mass above the anchor plate. Three types of anchor plates, including strip anchors, circle anchors, and rectangle anchors, and the corresponding failure mechanisms are taken into consideration. The anchor breakout factors were obtained according to the principle of virtual power, which was realized numerically by the nonlinear sequential quadratic programming algorithm. The shape modification factors for different kinds of anchors were given through a multiple nonlinear regression method. Numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of the solutions by reducing the solutions (nonlinear criterion and nonassociated flow rule) into their special cases (linear criterion and associated flow rule), which matches well with existing work. The dilation and nonlinearity of soil mass should be considered because it plays a remarkable role in the UPC of anchor plates.