Effect of Fluke Inclination on Behavior of Drag Anchor in Uniform Clay under Unidirectional and Combined Loading

Abstract

Prediction of trajectory of drag anchor is important for the design and selection of drag anchor. Prediction based on yield envelope characterizing the anchor behavior under combined loading provides a promising method. However, the existing application of the yield envelope method ignores the effect of the fluke inclination angle by assuming a horizontally placed anchor fluke. This study aims to investigate the behavior of inclined fluke, which is the practical case during installation. The effects of the fluke inclination angle and embedment depth ratio on the anchor behavior in uniform clay under unidirectional loading and combined loading are investigated. It is found that the effect of the fluke inclination angle on the unidirectional capacity factors is mainly for anchor with embedment depth ratio less than 3. This results in the large difference of the size of the yield envelopes for fluke with same smaller embedment depth ratio but different fluke inclination angle, while the effect is minor on the shape of the yield envelope for such cases. However, there is large difference in the shape and size of the shallow yield envelopes for fluke with different embedment depth ratios and inclination angles.