Effect of the Installation Process on the Pullout Capacity of Helical Anchors

Abstract

In this paper, an advanced numerical method called Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method is used for the prediction of the behavior of helical anchors in sandy soil under ultimate limit state ULS including the effect of anchor installation process. The CEL analysis allows one to overcome the drawback of the classical finite element FE method in the case of large deformation problems as it takes the advantages of both Lagrangian and Eulerian methodologies. Results have shown that the CEL analysis is relevant for the computation of the helical anchor pullout capacity. Indeed, the CEL analysis was able to rigorously determine the ultimate capacity of the anchor contrary to the classical FE method; the calculation via the CEL approach has been carried out for relatively large displacement values without encountering any problem of convergence. Furthermore, CEL analysis was able to simulate the installation process of the anchor and thus enables one to consider the effect of the soil disturbance induced by the installation process on the computed pullout capacity. The numerical simulations have shown that the pullout capacity of the helical anchor may be significantly decreased when considering the anchor installation effect.