Cyclic capacity of dynamically installed anchors and plate anchors in clay

This study investigated the performance of two anchoring solutions (dynamically installed anchors and plate anchors) under taut mooring in clay using laboratory model tests. In the experiments, two instrumented an-chors were pre-embedded vertically to the required depths before being loaded vertically. The monotonic capacity of the anchors was first established prior to a series of irregular cyclic loading tests scaled with dif-ferent peak cyclic load amplitudes or cyclic load ratios. The dynamically installed anchor is observed to ex-hibit significantly more capacity gain under similar irregular cyclic load ratios than plate anchors; however, plate anchors possessed significantly higher capacity to weight ratios. During the experiments, specific steps were taken to differentiate the effects of consolidation due to installation (setup) and those due to irregular cyclic loading on anchor capacity.