Experimental Study on the Strain Softening Behavior of Plate Anchors in Clay Under Cyclic Loading

Many geotechnical designs require knowledge of soil uplift resistance where the foundation must withstand tensile forces, such as wind loading on transmission towers, wave action on offshore structures, and buoyancy forces on buried pipelines. Most existing researches on the bearing capacity of plate anchors are limited to static analyses. The effects of offshore cyclic loading on the bearing capacity of plate anchors are not very clear. The ultimate pullout capacity of plate anchors in clay may decrease as the accumulated plastic shear strain grows due to the strain-softening of clay under cyclic loading. In this study, 1 g model tests were carried out to estimate the softening behavior of plate anchors including one low stress level case and two high stress level cases. PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technique was used to investigate the soil flow mechanism of the anchor at low stress level. Numerical analyses are carried out to simulate the large deformation behavior of the anchor at high stress level under cyclic loading.