Analysis of rectangular and square anchors in cohesionless soil.

Abstract

Horizontal anchors are widely used in civil engineering projects to resist uplift loads. A few theories are available for predicting uplift capacity of rectangular/square anchors. The theoretical methods suggested by Meyerhof and Adams and Murray and Geddes estimated the uplift capacity of rectangular/square with significant errors. An analytical method based on Kötter's equation is proposed for estimating the net uplift capacity of a horizontal rectangular/square in cohesionless soil. Application of Kötter's equation gives distribution of soil reaction on the failure surface, which is assumed to be the frustum of a trapezoid with a characteristic angle of inclination with the horizontal. A closed form solution for the uplift capacity is obtained with no requirement of any charts or tables.