Effect of soil deformability on the failure mechanism of shallow plate or screw anchors in sand

Most analytical approaches for the design of shallow plate and screw anchors in tension are based on the limit equilibrium of a rigid soil wedge for which a horizontal stress distribution acting on the failure plane is assumed. Finite element analysis for a wide range of soil properties was carried out to identify the shape of the failure mechanism and to study the stress distribution at failure. Results show that soil deformation modifies the stress field around the anchor and increases the uplift capacity. A semi-analytical approach is proposed to describe this stress distribution, based on peak friction angle