EFFECT OF PLATE FLEXIBILITY ON BEHAVIOR OF SHALLOW ANCHORS

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical and experimental investigation of the influence of plate flexibility on the behavior of shallow spread anchors in sand. The study shows that plate flexibility has a significant effect on soil-anchor interaction; including failure mechanism, displacement field of the soil mass around the plate, and load-displacement relationship. A finite element program utilizing an elasto-plastic constitutive model is used to study these factors. A large-scale experimental study on steel anchors of different plate thicknesses is described.