Vertical pullout capacity of horizontal anchor plates in the presence of seismic and seepage forces

In the presence of pseudo-static horizontal earthquake body forces and horizontal seepage forces, the vertical pullout capacity of horizontal plate anchors buried in sand has been determined by using the lower bound theorem of the limit analysis in combination with finite elements and linear optimisation. The variations of the pullout factor (a) F-gamma with (a(h) + i y(w)/y(sub)) and (b) the factor F-q with alpha(h), have been established for different embedment ratio of the anchor plate and the friction angle of sand. It is noted that the pullout capacity decreases continuously with increases in the values of ah and (i y(w)/y(sub)). The pullout capacity becomes continuously higher for greater values of the embedment ratio and interface friction angle. The failure patterns have been found to become unsymmetrical in the presence of horizontal body forces.