Abstract
Results from load tests conducted on ten, full-scale instrumented ground anchors installed in stiff clay, illustrated that anchor performance is load-history dependent. Anchors having shorter bonded lengths performed significantly better than anchors with longer bonded lengths. Therefore, shorter bonded lengths might, in some cases, provide a more efficient anchorage system. Instrumentation performance was excellent, due to the fact that the majority of the gages remained functional after anchor installation. Gage reliability was extremely good, as shown by the correlation between strain levels in embedment gages and strainmeters. Data from the 70-day load hold tests performed on the anchors indicates that an average of 7% of the initial anchor load will be lost over a period of 190 years. Since approximately one-third of the time-dependent load loss occurred during the first 300 minutes of this time period, it can be concluded that short-term tests can be used to reliably predict long-term ground anchor behavior.
Powers, William Francis (1993). Behavior of 10 full-scale ground anchors installed in stiff clay. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1993 -THESIS -P888.