Design and analysis of plate anchors in sand

Plate anchors, as an efficient and reliable anchorage system, have been widely used to resist uplift forces produced by structures, such as transmission towers, offshore platforms, submerged pipelines, and tunnels. In order to design a plate anchor it is important to know the factors which influence the design and uplift behavior of anchors embedded in sand. In this report a number of model uplift tests and numerical investigations made by different authors are described and based on these readings the uplift behavior of anchors in sand is explored and anchor's design procedure is described. In addition, basic anchor types, failure modes in anchors, and design codes are mentioned. Based on this study, it is found that the failure plane and uplift capacity is significantly influenced by the soil density and embedment depth. Therefore, it is concluded that the influence of sand density and embedment depth should be considered in anchor design.