Improving force resultant model for anchors in clays from large deformation finite element analysis

This paper presents an improved plasticity force-resultant model for anchors deeply embedded in clays, developed from large deformation finite element analyses. The current available force-resultant models for anchors are mainly developed from small strain finite element analysis while experimental approach has not been used due to technical challenges. The advantage of large deformation finite element analysis is that it provides much more data points to fit the yield surface than small strain finite element analysis, in addition to avoiding excess mesh distortion problems. Furthermore, the flow rule or normality can be effectively checked in the large deformation finite element analysis and further used to improve the fitting quality. After validated against retrospective simulations, the better performance of the developed plasticity force-resultant model is demonstrated by comparing with available experimental observations from centrifuge test.