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Ultimate capacity of granular pile anchors

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Abstract

The paper presents methods for the estimation of the ultimate pullout capacities of Granular Pile Anchors (GPA) for homogeneous and non-homogeneous (undrained strength increasing linearly with depth) ground conditions as the lesser of the two values obtained considering shear and bulging failure mechanisms. The ultimate pullout capacity and the critical lengths of GPA corresponding to a transition from shear failure to bulging failure are evaluated as functions of various parameters such as the length to diameter ratio, L/d, of GPA, the ratio of the shear modulus to undrained strength, G/cu, of the ground, the undrained shear strength of soil, cu, unit weight, γgp, the angle of shearing resistance, ϕgp, of the granular pile material, lateral coefficient of earth pressure, K0, etc. The variations of ultimate capacities and critical lengths are presented as functions of several parameters under investigation. The influence of non-homogeneous strength parameter, α, on the ultimate capacities and critical length is also investigated. The predictions are validated with limited test results available in literature [Caskey in Uplift capacity of rammed aggregate piers soil reinforcing elements, Thesis, University of Memphis, MS, 2001; Lillis C, Lutenegger AJ, Adams M (2004) Compression and uplift of rammed aggregate piers in clay. Geosupport: ASCE/GEO Geotechnical Special Publication No 14, 497–507]. The paper presents methods to estimate ultimate pullout capacity of granular pile anchors for homogeneous and non-homogeneous ground conditions. The ultimate capacity of GPA increases with increasing undrained shear strength of soil and resistance shifts to deeper depths in GPA unlike the granular piles which are independent of length. Theoretical results are validated with field test results.

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Data availability

The data and material presented in this paper are available.

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Abbreviations

c u :

Undrained strength of in-situ soil

c uo :

Undrained strength of in-situ soil at ground level

D :

Diameter of GPA

G :

Shear Modulus of in-situ soil

K 0 :

Coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest

L :

Length of GPA

L cr :

Critical length of GPA

N* c :

Bearing capacity factor

P ult :

Ultimate pullout capacity of GPA

P* :

Normalized pullout capacity of GPA

γ gp :

Unit weight of granular pile material

γ s :

Saturated unit weight of in-situ soil

γ sub :

Submerged or buoyant unit weight of in-situ soil

ϕ gp :

Angle of shearing resistance of granular pile material

β :

Lateral confining stress parameter

λ :

Relative density of the pile material

α c :

Non-homogeneity parameter of the undrained shear strength of soil

GPA:

Granular Pile Anchors

RCC:

Reinforced Cement Concrete

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Mohan Babu Univeristy (Erstwhile Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, 517102, India

    Eswara Reddy Orekanti

  2. Bauer Engineering India Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon (Haryana), India

    Vidyaranya Bandi

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, JNT University, Hyderabad, India

    M. R. Madhav

Authors
  1. Eswara Reddy Orekanti
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  3. M. R. Madhav
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Contributions

ERO and VB conceptualized and carried out the analysis, studied the results, and contributed to writing original draft preparation, reviewing and editing under the supervision of MRM.

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Correspondence to Vidyaranya Bandi.

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Orekanti, E.R., Bandi, V. & Madhav, M.R. Ultimate capacity of granular pile anchors. Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. 8, 317 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-023-01259-7

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