Numerical limit analyses of the vertical capacity of plate anchors in clay
Numerical limit analyses of the vertical capacity of plate anchors in clay
The increasing demand of renewable energy sources and the efficiency of wind energy has promoted the development of offshore wind energy to exploit deep-sea winds, as well as avoid the visual impact that onshore wind farms create. Floating platforms are an efficient and economical option for deep waters and plate anchors are commonly used in their mooring systems. In this research, 2D and 3D finite element analyses of the vertical pull-out capacity of plate anchors in purely cohesive soils are performed at different embedment ratios. The study is simplified to a homogeneous weightless soil layer with constant undrained shear strength. The codes OptumG2 and OptumG3 were used with satisfactory results, because they allow to progressively refine the finite element mesh (adaptative mesh refinement) and perform elastoplastic analysis and upper and lower bound limit analysis. Axisymmetric and plane strain models for two dimensions (circular and strip anchors) and circular and square shapes in three dimensions were analysed. Results include visualization of the failure mechanism and values of the pull-out capacity expressed as a dimensionless break-out factor. These values are compared with analytical solutions.
Elena Varela; Marina Miranda; Jorge Castro; Almudena Da Costa; Jorge Canizal
10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)
12. Offshore geotechnics
https://doi.org/10.53243/NUMGE2023-139
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