The Effect of Shape on the Pull-out Capacity of Shallow Plate Anchors in Sand

This paper presents an experimental and analytical study to investigate the effect of shape on the pull-out capacity of shallow horizontal plate anchors in sand under drained loading conditions. Novel dynamically penetrating plate anchor concepts have been proposed for use in the offshore energy sector. These anchor concepts may have shapes that are atypical, and the analysis of pull-out capacity of these shapes may be needed for design. Most of the research on the capacity of shallow horizontal anchors has focused on square, rectangular or circular shapes. Physical and analytical modelling was used to study the capacity of circular, square, triangular and kite-shaped plate anchors. The 1g physical model results indicated that the circular anchor had the highest capacity, which was up to two times higher than the square anchor, which had the lowest capacity of all shapes included in this study. The equilateral triangle and kite shapes had capacities that fell between the circle and the square shapes. A new generalised non-associated flow limit equilibrium model was developed to predict the pull-out capacity of shallow plate anchors with convex polygon anchor shapes. The model was most accurate at embedment ratios of 4 or less, with a bias of less than 10%.