Model investigation of the performance of single anchors and groups of anchors

Experimental investigations on the performance of single and groups of vertical screw anchors installed in dense, medium, and loose sands are presented. An experimental setup was instrumented to allow the measurement of the total pullout load, upward displacement, sand surface deflection, and stress development in the sand layer during all phases of testing. A sand placing technique was developed and utilized over all the testing program to ensure reproducibility of the predetermined unit weight. Stresses measured within sand deposits indicated that the tested sands were overconsolidated due to the application of mechanical compaction. Special tests were conducted on colored–layered sand to define the nature of the failure mechanism. The results of these tests, together with the measurements of the deflection of the sand surface, were employed to establish the shape of the rupture surface which could be represented by a segment of a logarithmic spiral. Groups of three, four, six, and nine anchors were tes...