Capacity of vertical and horizontal plate anchors in sand under normal and shear loading

Abstract

Plate anchors could be a solution for mooring offshore renewable energy devices in sand. Previous work has focused on the capacity of plate anchors when loaded normal to the plate. However, for field applications the anchor is mostly likely to be installed vertically, but then rotated from a vertical to non-vertical orientation as the mooring line is tensioned. This ‘keying’ process will result in a progressive change in the loading angle at the anchor padeye, such that the plate is subjected to a combination of vertical, horizontal and moment loading. In order to examine the resulting change in capacity due to the changing load inclination, laboratory scale 1g plate anchor tests were conduc..